THE FIRST* SURFER IN ITALY

I know that’s a pretty big claim, that’s what the asterisk is for. But really though, find me another human being who claims to have surfed in Italy, standing, riding waves, on a board, trimming down the line and all before Dwight Harrington was stationed here in 1969? At the time most surfers wouldn’t even think to look for surf in Italy. Watch Endless Summer, they were still surprised to find waves in Tahiti. We know there were other military servicemen who were surfers that were stationed in Italy throughout the Vietnam war, and possibly even earlier. But Dwight hasn’t managed to connect with any of them and none of them ever bothered to go back to Italy and introduce themselves to Alessandro Forte, widely regarded as the first Italian surfer. So with that, I’m claiming it for Dwight, just with an asterisk.