Surfing
Surfing
Wanna surf in Barcelona? Here's 7 hot tips to get the best waves in the Med
The unexpected fulfilment found in chasing two-foot wind swells.
Not so long ago I was the editor of Australia’s Surfing Life magazine. I spent most of my time there on the road – Tahiti, Mexico, Indonesia so many times – and when I wasn’t away I called the Gold Coast home. I gallivanted; I surfed a lot. I became spoiled for waves. Sessions would be turned down because the tide wasn’t right, or it might be cloudy later. Decent sessions, sessions that I’d do bad things for now.
A couple of years ago my situation changed. I changed professions, fell in love and moved to Barcelona. Not the world’s worst move, but my new job had me hunting crazy parties around Spain and that meant junket surf trips were now off the menu. I also landed in Barcelona in May, at the end of the Mediterranean swell season. So I waited, and I ate, and I got fatter and fatter, and apart from a couple of fortunate collaborations between jobs across the north of Spain and summer Atlantic swells, I effectively stopped surfing.
The other side of Barcelona
© Pixabay
My salvation came in October, when I stumbled across the Mediterranean’s surfing potential. I was walking the dog, enjoying the last licks of an Indian summer, when I saw people surfing. It wasn’t good by any stretch of the imagination, but it was my first experience of the two-foot windswell that would become my Barcelona bread and butter. Given the pent-up froth that I was harbouring, my hound’s exercise was neglected for the day and I went on to surf three times. I was back, the Med had potential, and from then on I scoured forecasts and systematically consulted webcams, just so I could squeeze every last drop out of the Mediterranean swell season.
Two years of chasing gale-fed mush later and I’m surfing at least once a week between October and May. This isn’t a whole lot, but compared to my previous prospect of perhaps hanging up the thruster save for vacations it’s a godsend. The surf is usually meh, but sometimes fairly epic, and there’s hardly a session I dry off from where I haven’t done something that keeps the stoke burning for the next round of checking forecasts, watching webcams and taking advantage of absolutely any surfable windows that come my way.
So, to save prospective Med surfers the hassle of trial and error, here are some things I’ve learnt about surfing in the Med:
The boardwalk... a favourite of rollerskaters
© Pexels / Carlos Pernalete Tua
There are more surf spots than you think
My arc of surfing extends along the greater Barcelona area, sometimes down to Valencia. I’ve surfed out in the Balearic islands – Menorca and Ibiza. In Spain I have heard of great waves down the coast in Alicante, and all the way around Andalucia towards Malaga. Further afield there are more consistent and better swells hitting Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, the coast of Italy gets semi-regular waves and I’ve even been told of swells sneaking into Slovenia. Basically, wherever there is coastline along the Med, you can get waves.
It gets good, like sometimes really actually pretty good
If you know your spots you can score. While most swells are short-period wind swells, and really good for just keeping active and squeezing out some foam climbs, sometimes the period will jack up to nine seconds and the waves will come in semi-organised lines, sometimes overhead lines. If you know your coastline you can almost always link these swells up with offshore winds and get waves that would be good, if not epic, anywhere in Australia, France or California. Want proof of how good it can get? Check out Leonardo Fioravanti’s recent edit from Sardinia.
Floridian grovel game meets the Mediterranean
© Nathan Adams
There’s no tide, so when it’s on it stays on
One of the most beautiful things about linking up a swell with an offshore is that you don’t have to worry about the tides. If it’s on, it’s on for as long as the wind stays offshore, and the swell sticks around. The contrast is the Atlantic coast of Spain and France, where four-metre tides means you’ve got to be a ninja to milk the most out of a bank, before it gets inundated or drained of water.
The swells are surprisingly powerful, but short-lived
While the tides stick around the swells don’t. They come up in an hour or so and can peter off just as swiftly. The lesson here is to hit it when it’s on. Don’t go off and check another spot, don’t wait for the crowd to die down or the weather to improve. If you find waves, you better be surfing them quick smart, because they might not be there for long.
Caroline Marks, on rail in the Mediterranean
© Nathan Adams
Your surfing days invariably coincide with shitty weather
We’re dealing with short-period wind swells mostly here, and they’re almost always generated locally. This means that the glorious surfing days are almost always accompanied by turbulent weather, and that means cold, windy and rainy. It’s not uncommon to be surfing Barcelona and see snow on the mountains that surround the city. That’s nice. What’s less nice is surfing during a rainstorm and dealing with the rubbish that comes with the city’s runoff – flotillas of condoms, sanitary pad armadas – that kind of fun stuff. Yesterday I ollied a floating dead rat, sick! But yeah, it’s still worth it.
The level of surfing isn’t high, but they’re no pushovers
Not so long ago the vast majority of local Mediterranean surfers were beginners, but now they’ve got the bug. I know that my fellow rat dodgers here in Barcelona spend at least one summer’s week every year surfing the Atlantic, and many jet off for a winter month in a tropical locale – Bali, Sri Lanka, wherever. When it’s on, we’re all on it, and it can get pretty crowded, especially when you’re comparing it to the quality of the waves. Plus, everybody’s a hungry little piggy for their slice of the shred – Med surfers hassle like these are the last waves on earth, and they might be, or the last of the season at least. One thing we can use to our favour, though, is the locals’ propensity to surf together. If there are a few guys on a peak they’ll all go to that same peak, regardless of what’s up the beach. I often surf alone just 100 meters up the beach from a pack of 30 rabid Catalans.
And when you're not surfing!
© Pixabay
There’s nothing finer than coming in from a successful Med shred and getting yourself into a nice goddamn lunch
Three courses – starter, main, dessert – €10, including a glass of wine. Treat yourself, you just redline frothed over a handful of two-footers and have a waterlogged condom behind your ear. Now’s time to get warm and contemplate just how surfing is the most addictive and rewarding pastime there is.
Stay tuned for more of Wade's writing coming up on Red Bull Surfing.
