THE FIRST ITALIAN SURFER

His name is Allesandro Forte, and he began surfing in Italy around 1970 after seeing a US military serviceman with a surfboard at his local beach. He came to this party at the Nimbus Surf Club (Italy’s oldest surf club) as an elder statesman in order to meet a former US military serviceman (Dwight Harrington, the first* surfer in Italy) who was stationed in Italy in 1969 and surfed alone during his tour of duty there during the Vietnam war. Somehow I was along for the ride and witnessed this historic meeting firsthand. Wild. Who’d a Thunk?