“The community of women surfers and women travelers is really special and so in starting this podcast we hope to really build more ways for people to stay connected and stay a part of that community.”
Surf with Amigas (SWA) has joined the world of podcasters, under the name “Second Breakfast”! If you’ve been on a retreat with us, you know we are big fans of Second Breakfast. We believe in that extra nourishing hot meal shared with new friends post-surf, where we break down what happened in the morning session. We pour a second cup of coffee and get into engaging discussions about life, current events, and of course, all things surfing. Amigas are smart, successful, inspiring women of all ages with interesting stories and world views. We’re not afraid to tackle controversial topics. We appreciate unique perspectives that challenge us to think differently. This podcast brings those discussions to a wider audience to be enjoyed at any time and any place, second cup of coffee optional.
In our inaugural episode, Holly Beck and Jackie George, co-creators of SWA, share their backgrounds in surfing and their journey to create all women’s surf and yoga retreats. From the early days of creating spaces for women’s surfing in Central America, the dirtbag dusty days of no internet and thatched roofs, to ultimately running 8 retreat locations worldwide. Holly and Jackie take us back in time; they share some of their travel experiences and moments that solidified both their friendship and business partnership. You’ll also get a sneak peak of some of their goals and insights as to what SWA may look like moving forwards. Above all, you’ll learn the story and purpose behind Surf With Amigas’ mission, why Holly and Jackie aspire to inspire women and help them step outside their comfort zone, in surfing and in life.
A PREVIEW OF THE FIRST EPISODE:
After stepping away from her career as a professional surfer, Holly thought,
“[She] would be like a normal adult living in California with the whole American dream and boyfriend by the house and have the job. But before [I stopped competing], I had traveled to Nicaragua and just totally fell in love with it. I was like, this place is amazing. The people are so beautiful. It feels really close to home and yet also very remote at the same time. You know, it was kind of like the Wild West and a lot of good waves.”
That’s when the wheels started turning in Holly’s mind, thinking about how to maintain a life of travel and waves, plus a girl gang to do it all with. She ended up moving to Nicaragua and attempting to run retreats, eventually meeting Jackie. It started out with a few of women-
“…just living the dream like dirtbags, never wearing shoes, everything dusty, composting toilets and tiny thatched roof cabanas and just surfing every day. It was kind of beautiful. A bunch of dogs running around. Yeah. Always, always some sort of adventure to get into and so many good waves. Not a lot of people around and we were really bringing the crowd. I mean, other than us, there were pretty much no women in the area. So we kind of like just built our own little sorority situation. A feral one. A feral sorority. Yes. The hazing ritual was like, can you survive using a composting toilet with no internet for months?”
We had already been calling all the girls the Amigas.
We’d be like, oh, that Amiga’s stuck in a rip current. Or like, that Amiga just got a stick wave. Or that Amiga there. Amiga this, Amiga that. And that was when we came up with the name Surf With Amigas. It really describes what we’re doing. Because besides all the other things we’re doing, at root, it’s about a bunch of amigas going surfing together.”