"Leave the quartz sand here!" is written on a prominent sign on Mari Ermi beach. Any offences observed should even be reported by telephone: "Pronto Spaggia!" There is no ordinary sand here and no ordinary spot either. Frank Maibach introduces you to the alternative spot in western Sardinia.
Mari Ermi on the west coast of Sardinia has speed potential from the south-east. It doesn't say that anywhere, which is why my wife Petra and I were all the more surprised to find such dream conditions here at the "Spiaggia di Muras". In front of the gently sloping turquoise-coloured dream beach, there are three agricampeggios (rustic campsites) belonging to three brothers right next to each other. It is difficult to decide which one to choose, especially as all three are beautifully situated and offer direct access to the beach.
In any case, it always feels like standing almost wildly on the beach. Pure nature, just the essentials. Puristic! Simple toilets, showers and Womo water and waste disposal are available. And even a beach shower! That's enough. No shopping facilities. You need to have done this before you arrive. If you're just looking for a bit of luxury or even like entertainment, you'd better never come here! We love it.
However, Giuliano Nardi's Agricampeggio - on the far right - offers such good, sometimes bizarre pizzas in the evening, e.g. refined with homemade Sardinian honey, cooked in a wood-fired oven on an old single-axle trailer, that you want to stay here longer than initially planned, if only to enjoy one of these gorgeously topped pies. All the more so when the wind forecast announces south-easterly winds, which definitely makes flat-water heating or trick sailing possible - and how!
Smooth speed track with laboratory conditions
The Scirocco comes diagonally offshore from the south-east and becomes stronger and more constant the further out you go. But even close to the shore, where the water becomes even shallower, it is fantastic for speeding and jibing on almost perfectly smooth water, just like in laboratory conditions. You then leave the shore area diagonally towards the open sea. The rush of speed should not make you forget that you are very quickly moving further and further away from the shore, which is why a jibe is soon recommended in the beginning chop, which you carve at full speed towards the open sea. Admittedly, this is the moment that instils respect when you are out here all alone and surfing the area for the first time. You should always have someone with you who can at least keep an eye on what's happening from the shore. Material breakage in offshore winds doesn't have to happen.
The conditions were fantastic that afternoon. But apart from me, there were no windsurfers or kiters for miles around. Heating up to an hour before firing up the pizza oven was enough to make the day a special and lasting memory.
Around 6 pm, after the first beer, you order your pizza, which you can then pick up half an hour later from the wood-fired oven trailer for ten euros. The only drawback: as darkness falls, masses of mosquitoes suddenly invade. Only flammable insect spirals can help here: Two on the table and two underneath, then only the others will be bitten. What an evening when the sun touches the horizon!
The Scirocco accelerates in a valley
After the surprising offshore adventure, the question soon arises as to why this natural quartz sandy beach on the west coast of Sardinia, of all places, is so well ventilated by the south-easterly wind. The reason is called "Campidano": this is a strip of lowland about 110 kilometres long and 12 to 25 kilometres wide, which runs like a long valley from Cagliari to Oristano through the entire south-west of Sardinia in the direction of the Scirocco wind, which then hits the Sinis peninsula, on which Mari Ermi and further north Putzu Idu lie, unhindered ( Territory report in surf 8/2021 ).
The entire Gulf of Oristano benefits from this huge wind tunnel running across southern Sardinia, for example Torre Grande in the north of the gulf, where there is shallow water in westerly winds. Scirocco does little to change this. However, the Scirocco blows less frequently than winds from the west. The prerequisite for the southeast is a low over the western Mediterranean and a high over the eastern Mediterranean, perfectly described in the Special Wind Edition in surf 11-12a/2022 .
Info Mari Ermi
Mari Ermi also works well in SSW to NW conditions, which is often the case here. Depending on the wind strength, bump and jump to moderate wave conditions are then the order of the day. The freeride or wave board is then just right. Beyond six Beaufort, only real waver should storm the elements. This brings us to the best time to visit: the best wind conditions are in spring and autumn. And at the end of October 2022, the temperature was over 25 degrees on a third of our days in Sardinia. The main season is not advisable, if only because you won't be able to fight your way through the masses of sun-hungry bodies to the waterline with your surf gear without an accident anyway. To get to Mari Ermi, you should enter the following GPS data (decimal degrees) into your sat nav: 39.963694, 8.405166. You will then arrive at the aforementioned Agricampeggio with the delicious pizzas. Take the route further south if the sat nav offers several routes.
So if you're ever in Sardinia and fancy discovering something new, pay Mari Ermi - and Giuliano with his pizza oven - a visit. You won't regret it.
