A-frame

Aaberg, Denny

Aaberg, Kemp

Abberton, Koby

Abbruzzi, Sid

Abellira, Reno

Abubo, Megan

academia and surfing

Adler, Tom

advertising and surfing

Aeder, Erik

aerial

Aguerre, Fernando

Aichner, Scott

Aikau, Clyde

Aikau, Eddie

Aipa, Ben

air-drop

airbrush

Airshow

Ala Moana

Alabama

alaia board

Alaska

alcohol and surfing

Alexander, Kala

Allen, Chuck

Alms, Paige

aloha shirt

Alter, Hobie

Alvarez, Pepe

Ancell, Kevin

Andaman Islands

Andersen, Lisa

Anderson, Craig

Anderson, Simon

Andino, Kolohe

Angel, Jose

angle

Angola

Angourie

Antarctica

Apocalypse Now

Arabian Sea

Aragon, Janice

Arakawa, Eric

Archbold, Matt

Arena, Eduardo

Ashton, Juan

Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP)

Atlantic Ocean

August, Robert

Aurness, Rolf

Auster, Ken

Australia

Avalon, Frankie

Azores

backdoor

backside

backside attack, Pipeline

backwash

bail out

Bain, Rob

Baja California

Baker, Bernie

Baker, Grant “Twiggy”

Baker, Tim

Bali

Ball, John “Doc”

Ballard, Bill

Ballard, Rochelle

balsa

Baltic Sea

Banks, Jim

Barbados

Barilotti, Steve

Barland, Michel

Barreda, Sergio “Gordo”

Barry, Michael

Bartholomew, Wayne

Baxter, Jackie

Bay of Bengal

Beach Boys, The

Beacham, Debbie

beachboys

beachbreak

Beachcomber Bills Grand Prix

Beachley, Layne

beavertail

Becker, Phil

Bedford-Brown, Stuart

Belgium

Bells Beach

Bendall, Ma and Pa

Bennett, Barry

Benson, Becky

Benson, Blanche

Benson, Linda

Bermuda

Bertlemann, Larry

Italy's rocky southwest-facing coastline, including the islands of Sardinia and Sicily, receive consistent small to medium-sized waves throughout the year, with the best surf arriving between September and June, as Atlantic Ocean storms cross western Europe and enter the Mediterranean. Capu Manu and Mino Capo, a pair of reefbreaks located on Sardinia's west coast, are among Italy's best surf spots, and both can produce tubing waves up to eight feet; beaches around Livorno, Viareggio, and Genoa to the north also have well-shaped surf. The east coast, facing the Adriatic Sea, receives sporadic short-lived wind swells, mainly during the winter. (The French-governed island of Corsica, located just north of Sardinia, is lined with a series of rarely surfed reef- breaks.) 

Italy is one of the few places in the surfing world where there is no tidal change. As of 2003, major portions of coastline in Sicily and the rest of southern Italy were still devoid of surfers and largely unmapped for surf. Average coastal air temperatures in Italy range from the upper 80s in summer to the low 50s in winter, with water temperatures ranging from the low 80s to the mid-50s. 

Wave surfing in Italy (as distinct from the far more popular sport of windsurfing) began independently and halfheartedly in several places during the late 1960s on boards left behind by visiting surfers. The sport shot up in popularity after the 1978 release of Universal's Big Wednesday, which bombed in America but was a minor hit in Italy as a subtitled import. "We all made our own boards, as it was impossible to find a real board in Italy," recalls Alessandro Dini, who began surfing in 1978, just before the release of Big Wednesday, and shortly afterward opened Italy's first surf shop, Natural Surf, in Viareggio. 

Other pioneering Italian surfers include Rome-based Carlo Piccini and Fabio Gini, along with Maurizio Spinas and Giuseppe Meleddu from Sardinia. "We all surfed in diving wetsuits and wool socks," Dini later recalled, "and used leashes made of rope." 

Dini also went on to found the Italia Wave Surf Team, which had 70 members by 1983. By 2003 there were nearly 50 surf shops in Italy and about 20,000 surfers, half of them longboarders, with the highest concentration of shops and riders located in and around Rome. 

Five Italian-published surf magazines were founded in the '90s: Surf Latino, Surf News, King Surfer, Surf, and Revolt. The Italian Surfing Federation, chartered in 1994, has 30 affiliated clubs and organizes three or four contests annually, leading up to an Italian national championship. The Italian surf is detailed in The Stormrider Guide Europe (1998).

Italy

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Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing