A sea of yellow and pink flowers covers the hills and the view of the deep blue sea could not be more beautiful. The evergreen maquis stretches over the gently rolling hills and the sound of the sea on the wild north-west coast is reminiscent of the ancient Antique and makes you forget that "the little continent", as Sardinia is often called, lies in the Mediterranean, far away from noise, dirt and traffic. Is this the magical mixture that makes us love northern Sardinia?
Gallura is not actually a typical region where people live by the sea. The inhabitants of northern Sardinia have always retreated inland. The Sardinians have never been "sea worshippers" who catch their fish every day and watch the waves crash against mighty granite rocks. It was only in the late 60s and 70s that everything changed fundamentally. Karim Aga Khan, multi-billionaire and religious leader of the Islamic religious community of the Ismaili Nizarites, invented and created the Costa Smeralda, the Emerald Coast, named after the emerald-like colour of the water in north-eastern Sardinia, and brought glitz and glamour to the island, fortunately without overtaxing nature.
In 1979, it was 16-year-old Robby Naish - already world champion at the time - who travelled to Europe with his family for a photo shoot, accompanied by director Peter Brockhaus and Charly Messmer. They were all overwhelmed by the windsurfing conditions and immortalised the north of Sardinia on the map of the best windsurfing spots in the world.
After just four days in Sardinia, we have already experienced a lot, explored the Costa Smeralda in the sunshine and asked the priest at Stella Maris church for waves and wind on Easter Saturday. He granted us both wishes. The mistral began to blow, built up waves and later turned towards Ponente. On our very first day, we rode a few nice waves in Vignola with a 5.0. The breakers shot metres high into the sky on a granite rock behind me - what a spectacle, what a start.
Later, we continued through a godforsaken landscape on the north-west coast towards the south-west, in the direction of Valledoria. We couldn't believe our eyes when we looked down from a rocky cliff onto the La Ciaccia spot: the waves were lined up over a reef and several windsurfers were riding different waves at the same time in sideshore conditions, performing wave 360s and massive jumps.
You can read the entire Spot Guide Sardinia North with the following 15 spots as a PDF download.
- San Teodoro / La Cinta
- Murta Maria
- Pittulongu
- Porto Rotondo
- Capriccioli
- Capo Ferro
- Palau
- Porto Pollo
- Angola Azurro
- Porto Liscia
- Capo Testa
- Rena Majore
- Cala Pischina
- Marina delle Rose (Lu Litarroni)
- Vignola Mare
