WORDS & Photos:
SARAH THORNELY &
Sarah Perkins
Sarah Thornely Bio
Sarah’s love of SUP brought her to running SUPJunkie, covering UK and worldwide races through live feeds and interviews.
Sarah is a qualified instructor with the ASI and British Canoeing and still gets great pleasure in getting complete beginners on the water. Sarah writes for SUP Mag UK and the Paddler, and does a lot work to support the GBSUP race series as well as paddlers who are participating in adventures and challenges for charity. https://www.supjunkie.co.uk
Ciao Bella – an Italian (and Austrian) odyssey
Sarah Perkins and I have talked and almost walked this trip many, many times. It finally came to fruition in 2025 – Sarah had a work trip coming up near Lake Garda, where she used to live. Combining this with a race in Austria that was on our bucket list, it was the perfect opportunity to get planning. When I say get planning, I mean Sarah P gets planning! She has been our ‘tour guide’ on many trips, booking accommodation, as well as incredible and unique places to visit, and, more importantly, the best places to eat. Being a ‘local’ in Italy for some seven years, Sarah knew all the hot spots.
We also wanted to connect with an Italian friend who lives and paddles on Lake Garda, Nicola Volani, who is part of the Paddle Logger family – look him up on Instagram for some stunning shots and videos.
Lake Garda
With vans loaded with all the toys, we spent a couple of days driving through Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Austria until we arrived in the small town of Nago-Torbole at the northern end of Lake Garda. Our accommodation was perfect, a gated hotel within a two-minute walk of the lake.
The winds on the lake are fairly set in their ways, with the Pelèr blowing north to south in the morning and then a complete switch around in the afternoon, with the Ora blowing from the south – more about that later from Sarah P! It could not be better for paddleboarding first thing, and for Jonny to go wing foiling in the afternoon. There are more local names for the different winds in this region, and this week they challenged us with their irregularity! This was not a bad thing; it kept us on our toes. We popped to the lake edge in the morning, and once we had scoped out the conditions, we were ready to play.
But first, a visit to Lago di Tenno, a small but perfectly formed lake up in the hills some 570 metres above sea level. A walk down the medieval steps led you to this sapphire-blue lake, truly unique and stunning, and we had a fun few hours paddling and taking many, many photos! It’s a destination for many walkers and cyclists too, and I wonder if they were bemused by us on our carbon race boards!
Canale
While visiting Tenno, we took the opportunity to walk down to the medieval village of Canale, famous for its narrow lanes and overhanging balconies full of drying corn cobs. It’s beautifully remote and has many traces of a fascinating past, including a museum of ancient wooden farm tools.
Over the week, we sampled many places to visit and eat locally, and a particular pizzeria with a lively chef and staff became a firm favourite. We also regularly took advantage of the Italian tradition of Spritz o’clock.
We borrowed old bikes from the hotel and visited local villages, becoming aware that a Giro d’Italia stage was coming through Arco, a village located approximately 7 km from Torbole. Knowing Antony’s love of road cycling, we really couldn’t miss it, so we pedalled our way to Arco, locked the bikes to some railings and found a great viewing spot. There is nothing more exciting than watching an entourage of cars, camera bikes, and police pass through just before the peloton! Blink and you’ll miss them; they are incredibly fast. What an experience – we had to celebrate with tiramisu!
Every day, we tried to connect with Nicola, and finally we did, but not on the water. We met him in a bar one evening and chatted about all things Italian, from the local area to the paddling, of which he is a real expert, the local food tours, and the best kind of Spritz to drink! It was a fun evening, and as we knew Nicola was travelling to the race in Austria, we would hook up again.
We spent seven days at Lake Garda, enjoying some beautiful paddling and exploring on the lake, as well as taking in some great bike rides – everything felt easy and comfortable, with just ourselves to think about. For me, having no work or event to cover just made the trip feel like a proper holiday and like many others, I have a real passion for Italy.
Austria
On the day of my birthday, we left Italy to travel to Austria, taking scenic routes through the mountains. We stopped by a wonderful cheese factory, where we had lunch and purchased some treats. Arriving later at Faaker See, our accommodation could not have been better – right on the lake and only 200 yards by paddleboard to reach the race venue! That evening, we wandered down to register, grab our race vests and catch up with old and new friends. A ‘city’ race had been held that day in nearby Villach as part of the festival, and just before prize-giving, the race director and his team organised for me to appear on the podium for a lovely rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ in my honour – so sweet!
Sprint competition
The next day, the competition started in earnest for Sarah and me with the sprints – we had not appreciated that these would be run in a different format to the norm, and we both fell in love with the idea immediately. We all wore timing chips, joined the queue, and when ready, sprinted off the beach individually, around a buoy, and back onto the beach. A total of 200 metres, and you could sprint as many times as you liked! It was perfect. Quite tactical too, amongst the pros, especially as your time would show immediately, and therefore you would know where you stood against others. It was a very cool format, and I managed to come away with a gold medal in my age category. Sarah Perkins bagged a well-deserved bronze in hers.
It was incredible to be around the athletes and be able to watch up close their different techniques, beach starts and how they deal with the pressures on competition day. These athletes have been, and continue to be, truly inspirational to me.
Well-earned rest
The day after Sarah and I took a well-earned rest day instead of competing in the distance race, it was so, so hot and paddling around the lake for three laps wasn’t appealing. It was appealing to over 300 other paddlers, though, and we were able to watch them and see the winners come in right on the small beach at the venue. You can learn a great deal from watching others race.
Day four of the event was Tech racing and held on a different ‘bigger’ beach at the lake – not much bigger to be fair, but certainly enough for ten paddlers to start together and surrounded by a couple of jetties for excellent viewing. Matty from Total SUP was on the mic all weekend and invited me to join him at some point. Having worked with him before, I would not let the opportunity pass!
Csillag Kocsis
Due to a lack of 60+ paddlers, I had to join in with the incredibly fierce 50+ women – I gave a good account of myself but didn’t progress, even after some top tips from Csillag Kocsis’s father – this young paddler went on to win two golds and one silver at this event – a true superstar!
Sarah Perkins smashed her way into the final, and I could now join Matty on the mic to commentate on all the finals live, including Sarah’s. It’s lovely to be able to commentate when your good friends are racing – very exciting stuff. Sarah was strong but missed out after a late surge from another paddler; she was just out of the medals, but still loved the competitive but friendly spirit of the racing.
It was a long day, especially for our very supportive other halves – they fed and watered us, took photos and videos and carried boards – what would we do without them!
I managed to grab a couple of interviews with Csillag and our old friend Michael Booth – great to see them both at the top of their game and on the podium.
We could not recommend the Lake Rocks Festival highly enough. Wonderful organisation and decision-making from the legend that is Rudy van Haven, and we must also mention Michael Sternig and Gerd Weisner. We were made to feel incredibly welcome and couldn’t believe how many paddlers attended the event, including many juniors – a real success, and we will definitely return.
Our next few days were spent exploring and resting, and then we embarked on the long journey home with Sarah P, who surpassed herself with even more great places to explore. Our trip was a huge success, and paddling was at the heart of it – stand up paddling has taken us both to far corners of the world, and the Italy/Austria combo certainly worked for us. We hope that our road trip inspires you to travel – from taking a van loaded with race boards on the roof, to backpacking with a favourite iSUP, this world of ours certainly is full of wonderful places to paddle. Happy travelling and paddling!
SARAH Perkins says…
You can’t visit Lake Garda and not be swept up by the world of watersports. I was fortunate enough to move to Italy in 2001, where I completed my PhD at the Centre for Alpine Ecology, specialising in wildlife diseases. I lived two steps from the beach, and an obsession with windsurfing quickly took root. Now a SUP obsession has taken over, and I see the old place with fresh eyes. It’s a downwind SUP paradise.
The ‘Pelèr’
At the northern tip of Garda, the town of Torbole is a windsurfing (and now winging) mecca and the perfect place to launch a SUP. The wind is as reliable as clockwork. In the morning, you’ll find an offshore breeze blowing north-to-south (called the ‘Pelèr’), perfect for an early downwind session. By late morning, the wind fades, goes still for a perfectly timed lunch break, and then literally switches 180 degrees, giving way to the ‘Ora’, a thermal wind that blows onshore, south-to-north.
The wind works so reliably because the Dolomite mountains surround the lake, and as these warm and cool over the day, they draw in or release winds to and from the lake. The greater the temperature differential between the lake and the mountains, the stronger the wind. Sometimes in the afternoon, you can see the wind line rippling up the lake; when it’s like this and the wind hits Torbole, I’ve seen sun loungers go flying! If you get a strong Ora wind, you’re in for a treat; world-class windsurfers are always hanging around the lake, and they’ll be throwing some loops.
I’ve always dreamed of sharing this lakeside playground with close friends, and earlier this year we all agreed that a road trip to the Lake Rocks festival was on the cards, and Lake Garda offered the perfect stop-off. Pre-race prep consisted of lakeside eateries and cantina trips (where you can buy local wines by the litre using a ‘petrol’ pump).
A mountain adventure
Mid-trip, I had to attend a scientific meeting on zoonoses – diseases that jump from wildlife to humans – in the high mountains of Pale di San Martino, where the National Parks were hosting us. These amazing limestone peaks surround Lake Garda and serve as a great reminder that any SUP trip can be transformed into a mountain adventure (hiking, biking, via ferrata) in a heartbeat. Coming back to the lake, the big goal is a complete circumnavigation of Garda, taking advantage of that reliable wind. Time it right, and it’s an epic downwinder.
