Italy has a surprisingly robust surf scene. And has for many years, especially in Tuscany where surfers actually began riding waves in the 1970s. Surfing in Italy, especially northwest Italy, is usually very predictable: small surf and longboarding in the summer, full suits and better waves in the winter. This year, however, has been different. Recently, a mid-summer swell had locals frothing. “Tuscany went through an amazing summer swell,” photographer Tommaso Pardini told us. “Ten days of good quality waves. It was pretty strange for the Mediterranean Sea and I couldn’t remember something like this happening before!”
Thankfully The Inertia contributor was there to document it. He passed along these 18 images capturing the beauty of a rare summer swell that brought the Tuscan surf scene out to play.
Read Tommaso’s feature story about surfing in Italy, here.
