About me

Yoo 👋 My name is Filippo Galli, but my friends know me as Gaf 😅

I am not a Pro Surfer... But for the last 2.5 years I have been surfing almost every day (if waves were there 😬).

I am on a mission to make you fall in love with surfing, no matter the physical abilities, age or if you eat pineapple pizzas. 🍕

I share surf stories, tips, and tricks that I hope will make you a better surfer or at least have a laugh 😬

But can you get barrelled?

• N0... But hopefully this coming year🤞 I had many wipeouts & lessons 🌊 With consistency I have slowly improved but I see myself as an upper-intermediate surfer 🏄‍♂️
• I can teach beginners -> Qualified ISA Lvl.1 Surf Instructor  🤙

Do you do other things than just surfing? 💶

• Freelance Full-Stack Developer, making websites and web apps for startups 🧑‍💻
• Creating Surf Videos on my Instagram and Tiktok 📹
• Organize Surf Trips 🌞

3 Random Facts

1. My wardrobe consists of 5 Hawaiian shirts 🌺
2. I used to have 64 dreadlocks and did not smoke weed 🍍
3. For the first time, at 23 years old I did 3 months of acrobatic Gymnastic (I did not die) 🤸‍♂️

If you have time to read here is a more background story 🤙

Italian Childhood 🍝⚽

I grew up in Riccione a tiny sea town in Italy that gets packed over the summer. Well known for all-night-long parties 🕺, tasty food 🥙 and not the most beautiful sea 🙃

Like the majority of Italian kids, I played football with the dream of becoming an AC Milan Player. That has not happened...  😅 But I had some good memories and even played for a semi-professional club academy for a few years.

A 27 hour's journey abroad can change your life ✈️

Luckily enough, when I was 17 I went to see some clear water in Hawaii 🏝️, thanks to my main life sponsor (La mamma) and my friend Matteo who hosted me there in Honolulu.

It was a life-changing trip that made me realize 3 things:

1. I learned more life lessons in 3 weeks than in 17 years of life - I need to travel more
2. With my English, I could barely say hi but I must learn it to travel
3. I am terrible at surfing but I love it!

University time 📖

After that, my main goal shifted to learning English so that I could travel more. At the same time, I wanted to progress in my working career... 🤔

So let's move abroad and study Computer Science in the United Kingdom - the motherland of English. 🇬🇧 👑

I lived there for 3 years in Birmingham and 1 (for my year abroad) in the USA at UIUC. So that I could also get some American English skills 🏈

Absolutely had a blast there and sending some love to the people I met. 🤟Toward the end of my degree and all my classmates were talking about Graduate Programs but I still wanted to travel/live abroad and continue my lifestyle.

Digital nomad start 🧑‍💻 🏝️

The 4-hour workweek (a book) introduced me to the concept of "Digital Nomads", those who move from one country to another and work online. Had some clients with that I could work remotely as a developer so with a friend of mine we decided to take a one-way flight to Thailand, more precisely Chiang Mai the digital nomad capital!

Wow, the community and quality of life were fantastic. Events, co-working spaces, cheap food, and things to do, nomads everywhere. It was the perfect start to this lifestyle.

However... there was still a hitch to be near the sea, to surf again...

Digital nomad surfer? 🏄🧑‍💻

So after 3 months in Thailand let's go to Sri Lanka, a not-so-great Digital Nomad destination but a great place to surf for beginners and intermediates.

Since then I kept surfing and working online, moving to places where I could first surf and had some internet. Here is a quick list.

• Weligama, Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
• Ericeira, Portugal 🇵🇹
• Bajamar, Tenerife  🇮🇨
• Devon, United Kingdom 🇬🇧
• Ericeira, Portugal 🇵🇹
• San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua 🇳🇮
• Ericeira, Portugal 🇵🇹

And now where are you? 📍

• Ericeira, Portugal for the next year as a base, I fell in love with this place for its waves, people, and how close it is to Italy.