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Suit up and catch some waves on Estonia’s Baltic coast

Always a nation to exceed expectations, even geographical ones, Estonia has a 3,794 kilometre-long coastline. As a comparison, Argentina (which has a seemingly enormous coastline when you look at an atlas) has a coastline that's 4,989 kilometres long.

An action shot from Ristna, Hiiumaa by Henri Kolberg
An action shot from Ristna, Hiiumaa by Henri Kolberg

Canada has the longest in the world, at 243,042 kilometres, “including the mainland coast and coasts of offshore islands” as documented by Statistics Canada. Clearly, map projections distort our sense of size.

As Estonians have watched lained (waves) crash upon their famous, winding coastline for generations, it would make sense that they might go out, try to ride them, and have some fun on the water, right? The reality is, there are a number of factors that get in the way of this. Larger waves that are more conducive for rides are blocked by those equally-famous islands. As SurferToday.com states, “Most of Estonia is blocked from the bigger SW-W swells by its own Hiiumaa and Saaremaa islands.”

Where one can find waves, you won't always be rewarded. Travel company Nomad Surfers says “The surf conditions are usually inconsistent in summer, freezing in winter and with shallow coastal waters...The best time to surf in Estonia is also the coldest during autumn and winter. During summer the Baltic Sea is usually calm and it’s rare to have any decent sized waves that can be ridden.”

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