L'Enfer de Dante

The site sits in the semi-enclosed bay between the Golfe-Juan/Cannes mainland (to the N and NW), the Cap d'Antibes and Juan-les-Pins headland (NE-E) and the Îles de Lérins / Île Sainte-Marguerite (SW-S), so most sectors are shadowed by land. The mainland fully blocks the N-NW-W arc, and Cap d'Antibes shelters much of the NE-E, softened only by diffraction around the cape. The open, exposed window is the south: the SE-SSE-S sector looks straight out to the open Ligurian Sea and takes the full brunt of a Scirocco/SE blow, which builds the biggest waves here, while the Île Sainte-Marguerite trims the SSW-SW. There is no true ocean groundswell in the west Mediterranean — surface conditions are wind-sea driven, worst on a sustained southeasterly, and the offshore pinnacles feel a Mistral/NW blow far less than the exposed south. As a deep relief it is calm underwater, but a southerly sea reinforces the site's currents and can force trips to be cancelled.