Italy

The region

There is no ocean swell in the Mediterranean. The basin is too small and too enclosed for a groundswell to build over long distances. What breaks in Italy was generated by a storm in the same region, usually within the last day or two. Without wind nothing happens — and when the wind stops, so does the wave.

The best region is Sardinia, above all the west coast, which faces the open part of the western Mediterranean. With a strong Mistral there is enough fetch there to produce clean waves. Tide is essentially irrelevant: the range is a matter of decimetres, so wind and swell alone decide the day.

The season runs from autumn to spring, when lows track across the western Mediterranean. Summer is mostly flat. At 14 to 24 degrees the water is far warmer than anywhere else in this overview — in late summer a shorty is sometimes enough.