Dylan Graves is a connoisseur of the hard-to-find wave. His travels most recently took him to Italy, where there turns out to be a thriving surf scene that even a weird waves veteran like Graves was shocked by. “I recently got to experience Rome, Italy, for the first time and…wow,” says Graves at the top of the video.
Italy’s premiere surfing hotspot is Santa Marinella, a village just 30 minutes outside of Rome. To learn about it, Graves partnered with Roby D’amico, whose YouTube channel shows just what the Mediterranean ocean has to offer in terms of wave riding. It turns out D’Amico is preternaturally adept at hunting down swells in the region.
“Scoring in the Mediterranean isn’t as easy as Roby makes it look,” explained Graves. After scrutinizing the forecast, D’Amico took Graves to Banzai Beach, Santa Marinella, which he explained is Italy’s most famous wave. They arrived to a sight that blew Graves’ mind: honest-to-god rippable waves with not a soul on them. “Look at that thing!” yelled Graves. “That thing was sick. Why is there nobody? I’m tripping,” he continued, flabbergasted.
The peaks didn’t stay empty for long, as Rome’s thriving surf community came out to join them. “When in Rome, you do as the Romans do,” narrated Graves. “…and the Romans were ripping.”
However, the piece de resistance came later. For their third surf session of the day, Graves, D’Amico and company arrived at a beach with waves that had them shouting and jumping up and down on the beach like school boys.
“I was already feeling like we had scored on our previous session, but now this?” narrated Graves. “I would have been pumped on these waves anywhere in the world, but this is Italy. My mind’s been blown.”
