Late July Retreat in North Nica

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On our very last retreat of the Summer season in Northern Nicaragua we got super lucky with good swell, great conditions and a more shredding than usual crew of ladies. We even had a shortboard ripper from NorCal who showed up and inspired the beginners to go harder! It was a crazy fun week!
amigas going out good right

SWA Instructor Profile – Shezza

Surf With Amigas focuses on hiring the very best instructors so that you get the very best instruction. We would happily challenge any other surf camp staff to a surf off! Here’s our skilled longboarder Sherrie “Shezza” Houghton showing off her moves. Surf with Shezza in El Salvador and Nicaragua October – December 2015.

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Surfing All Day in Costa Rica

Week 2 of our three week Surf Yoga Jungle Adventure series in Costa Rica saw some serious shredding by Amigas with very little surfing experience riding some big waves all the way to shore and some more experienced shortboard shredders perfecting the art of throwing spray.

It’s so fun to have a wide variety of abilities on the same retreat. Everyone cheers and supports each other no matter where they’re at in their surfing and what they’re trying to work on. As a coach, it’s really rewarding to watch the progression.

Here’s a little taste of the action.

Amigas Score Pumping Low Tide Pavones on Day 0 of the Retreat

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The retreat hadn’t even officially started yet, but three of the Amigas showed up on the early flight and with a solid swell running and the froth factor high, we took them to Pavones for their warm up session. It was incredible! Holly and Michelle were frothing so hard. The current was ripping along the point making it impossible to stop paddling for even a second while well overhead doubling up lefts were steam rolling down the point.

We were a little nervous taking the girls out at first. Molly is from Chicago and had only surfed one week before, during her first retreat with us almost a year ago. Luckily she’s a really strong paddler and had total faith in the instructors. She dodged the sets and scored a couple of sweet rides.

Karen is 66 years old and lives on Kauai. She is so inspirational. She paddled out through a heavy set and then out to the peak. Her goal this week is to catch some waves without going to her knees. She caught 4 or 5 of the most beautiful waves before calling it a day.

Amber is from the gulf coast of Florida and surprised herself being able to surf big Pavones, especially on the first day of the retreat. She took a gnarly wipeout on a big wave that was unfortunately not captured on video, but shook it off and got one good wave after that.

It was so unbelievably fun!amber pavones

holly pavones

holly pavones lip crack

karen pavones

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michelle pavones

molly pavones

February 14th Retreat Highlights

This particular week we had particularly difficult conditions. The tide and wind didn’t really cooperate but that’s just a part of surfing! The Amigas were mostly beginners and they stepped up, handled the tricky conditions and learned so much! We also avenged our loss from the previous week and beat the local kickball team 14-13 in a very exciting game! So fun!

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Holly Tests Out the Body Glove Breathe Surf Leggings

I’ve been rocking Body Glove swimwear since I was 17. The company focuses on creating women’s swim, surf, and active wear that is super functional as well as super cute. For many years I was active in helping them design women’s wetsuits and bikinis that would be comfortable and stay on while surfing. Over the last few years, since I moved to Nicaragua full time, I’ve been a bit more out of the loop, so I was really excited to learn that Body Glove was launching a new line of women’s active wear called Breathe that included yoga pants and surf leggings. Check out the video…[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktx–QRWyAA]

I got myself a couple pairs of the surf leggings and have been trying them out the last couple of days during a retreat. Not only are they really cute (see photos for evidence), they are also really comfortable. Yesterday I wore them from 5am to 5pm non-stop with two surf sessions, breakfast, lunch, and some beach coaching mixed in. I highly recommend them!

 

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