Bordighera and Arma di Taggia are spots of the extreme western Liguria that work with wind from East / North-East. The Caranca di Bordighera, in particular, is a spot that can offer truly memorable windsurf sessions.

 

Windsurf, spot reviews: Bordighera and Arma di Taggia (Liguria, Italy)

The winds from the East/North-East are not "easy" ones to be taken in the west of Liguria, i.e. not all the spots work well with these types of winds.

Among those that are best exposed to these winds, and which also bear a slight rotation from the North East, you have Imperia La Rabina, and Bordighera, located on tips that protrude into the sea, towards the South, and so that catch the wind well right for this morphological feature. Arma di Taggia, and especially Diano Marina, although placed in a stretch of coast, facing to the South East, lie within inner bays, and work better with wind from the East, while they suffer a possible rotation of winds from the North East, also because of the presence of promontories to the East of spots beaches, which disturb the wind.

 

 

 

 

Bordighera (Caranca)

The Caranca spot at Bordighera is located near the bath facility with the same name, at the eastern end of Bordighera (see map in the article).

 

Arma di Taggia

The other spot in the Sanremo area, which works with East wind, is Arma di Taggia.

To reach the spot, leave the A10 at Arma di Taggia, and go down towards the sea following Via San Francesco. When you reach the large roundabout, where Via San Francesco intersects the Aurelia national road (S.S.1), continue straight on along Via della Stazione. When it turns to the right, take Via Sant'Erasmo on the left, which leads to the sea. Turn right, then, and take the Lungomare di Ponente, and proceed to the end, reaching a parking lot, located at the intersection of the Lungomare and Via Miramare. You can park here, or if you do not find a place, in the seafront car parks near this point. The beach in front of the parking lot is the right the spot one.
Here, unlike Bordighera, there is a fine sand beach, in front of which there are breakwaters parallel to the beach, some tens of meters from the shoreline.

You can assemble board and sail near the car, at the parking lot, or you can mount your equipment at the beach, considering that from the sidewalk along the promenade, to access the beach, you have some narrow gates where you have bath facilities, which can be a problem to make the sail pass inside. Eventually, further west of the car park, continuing along the seafront, you have an open space from which you can access the beach without any gates.

 

With the wind from the East, which arrives on the spot side, you easily enter into the water from the spot beach, and you go out into the open sea, passing from the gap (about 20-30 meters) between the two breakwaters. If there is strong wind, just outside this gap, a relatively steep and high wave rises (1/1,5 meters, more or less), and within certain limits good for some surfing (but do not consider this one a wave spot....). Beyond the breakwaters, you have bump and jump conditions, with generally non-breaking waves, on which to jump. Inside the breakwaters, instead, you have a fifty meters of flat water, in which, eventually, on your return, have fun doing a bit of freestyle, or exercise with some funboard maneuvers.

 

 

 

The problem at Arma is that if the wind rotates from NE, the spot also stops working very quickly: the wind remains only offshore; near the shore it becomes very gusty and off/side off. The return, in particular, can become disagreeable, if you do not have relatively large volume boards, or you are overpowered.

Generally, in the case of NE, the sea offshore becomes messy, with an unpredictable and unpleasant chop to handle. In case you have problems, moreover, and you happen to drift due to technical problems, or due to the poor quality of the wind, you have to pay attention. As you can see from the map in the article, you have only one more passage to get back into the breakwaters, more downwind. Otherwise, you can return to the wide beach, not protected by cliffs, in front of Via al Mare, quite far from the beach spot. The spot, therefore, is safe, all in all (further downwind, you have the promontory of Bussana, that can intercept you), but if you drift, then you have to take a long walk back to the car, or worse, go back on foot, and go to recover the equipment at the beach with the car.

Again, being in the village, you have plenty of bars/restaurants at the spot, to eat.

There are no known shops or windsurfing schools, near the spot.

Aloha. Fabio 

 

Click here, to enjoy a slidegallery of a very good session at Caranca.

 

 

A video taken at Caranca, on Sunday 8th of april 2018