There are many surf festivals around the globe, more than I can enumerate, but Surfer Joe Summer Festival is so special. I mean, there's a baseline of special at any surf event: you see these performers that are so exceptional, legendary even, but only within this tiny genre. It feels like a secret. But to converge upon Livorno, a charming Italian town scarcely mentioned by the rest of the world, with roaring waves behind you, and for every person you meet to be sporting a different accent, and to be immersed deeply in this for four days... it's dreamlike.