Develop a Strong At-Home Popup Practice with this Video Tutorial

In this video tutorial Surf With Amigas Founder Holly Beck takes a holistic approach on how to develop an at-home popup practice.

In addition to learning all about different popup techniques + modifications, Holly will teach you an effective “reverse popup” technique that will help you target and ease physical limitations that you may feel in YOUR BODY while popping up.


Ready to dive down the surf tutorial rabbit hole?

CLICK HERE for more tutorial videos

 

 

 

Who Are The Amigas? Q&A with Grace Lee

WE’RE BACK AGAIN TO CATCH UP WITH MORE ALUMNI AMIGAS THAT YOU MAY KNOW!

THIS MONTH WE’RE CHATTING Q+A STYLE WITH our friend grace who has joined swa retreats with the main goal being to reconnect with herself and to make new connections with others. STAY TUNED FOR MONTHLY STORIES AND UPDATES FROM OUR GOOD FRIENDS ACROSS THE GLOBE.

Q: Think back to when you attended your first SWA retreat. Why did you book that trip? What was that first retreat experience like for you?

I had actually been researching surf retreats and was ready to reserve a spot with a different group in Dominical area.  I asked my friend, Jaime if she was interested in joining me and found that for the exact same week she had already reserved with SWA – so she suggested I tag along with her! Best decision ever!

Q: Now that you’ve been on several SWA retreats, what keeps you coming back?

Holly and her wonderful staff, the awesome women I have met, the great knowledge shared in the clinics/lectures, feeling of community and FUN times! I had lost my connection to surfing for a few years with life happening… the goal for the Costa Rica retreat was to reconnect, which definitely happened. I wasn’t even half way through Costa Rica retreat yet and booked Morocco! The Morocco holistic retreat that I joined took that further and I’m finally feeling like ME again… it’s been a long time and it feels great!

Q: Describe the feeling you get from surfing…

Freedom… that’s the best way I can describe it as it’s difficult to put in words. When you catch a wave, you are in that moment and everything else is drowned out – you feel free and unhindered… as if you are a child again! I giggle riding down the line…!

Q: What are you most passionate about in life right now? The SWA community wants to know!

Making new connections and experiences through surfing, snowboarding, and travel adventures. Spending time with framily (friends + family)!

Q: What is your dream SWA retreat location?

Maldives! New Zealand! Holly knows this 🙂 

Q: What would you tell someone who is about to go on their first SWA retreat?

Continue reading “Who Are The Amigas? Q&A with Grace Lee”

SWA Partners with Non-Profit in Peru to Empower Local Women Through Surf

Surf With Amigas has a goal of partnering with local non-profits that work to improve the lives of community members in the places we host retreats. Finding a trust-worthy non-profit, working on a project that we want to support, is easier in some places than others.

Luckily for us, our trip leader for the Peruvian retreats, Natalie Small, has been spending quite a bit of time in the country every year for nearly a decade, and has forged many strong relationships with the local women. First traveling to Peru as a tourist with a goal of checking out Machu Picchu in 2013, she fell in love with a seaside town that just happened to be the birthplace of surfing in the region. Natalie is the founder of Groundswell Community Project, a 501-c3 surf therapy organization and created a local chapter in Huanchaco with the goal of healing, empowering, and uniting local women and girls in the waves by making surfing accessible to them.


Surf With Amigas has been able to support the program by buying a quiver of boards for use during our retreats that will be donated to the collective. Two different local shapers made boards to allow the Hermanas to open the very first women-owned, women-run surf school and surf shop in Peru. How rad is that?!

The local women can then use these boards to rent to tourists and use in their community programs, including a bi-weekly surf therapy drop-in for moms and teens. The Hermanas are currently working on getting ISA certified so that they can be surf coaches in Huanchaco.

These boards have given huge opportunity for the local women to be able to be empowered to start their own business in the sea.

Join us on a 2023 Retreat in Peru to support this amazing project and experience the longest left in the world!

Who Are The Amigas? Q&A with Danielle Gustafson

We’re back again to catch up with more alumni amigas that you may know!

this month we’re chatting Q+A style with mother, surfer, and world traveler danielle gustafson to learn more about the why behind her surf journey + a bit about her personal retreat experiences. Stay tuned for monthly stories and updates from our good friends across the globe.

Q: Think back to when you attended your first SWA retreat. Why did you book that trip? What was that first retreat experience like for you?

A: I’ve been obsessed with surfing for 20 years, but I never committed. I was a white wash wahine. As my kids got older and started shredding, I recognized that I had to learn to surf or lose them to their passion. My main motivation to finally commit was to keep a connection with them. It only made sense to send myself to SWA. That was four and a half years ago. I had no idea it would change the course of my life in the best possible ways. 

Q: Now that you’ve been on several SWA retreats, what keeps you coming back?

A: I can’t get enough. Every retreat has been epic. I gift myself at least one a year. Hey, I invest in my kids’ summer camp, tutoring and sports development. Why wouldn’t I offer myself the same level of self-care? 

Q: Describe the feeling you get from surfing…

A: Connectedness. Growth. Freedom. Humility. 

Q: What are you most passionate about in life right now? The SWA community wants to know!

A: Umm, surfing! My kids, health and career are on the list, too.

Q: What is your dream SWA retreat location?

A: Maldives

Q: What would you tell someone who is about to go on their first SWA retreat?

A: You made the right choice. 

Q: Do you have your next surf trip planned? If so, give us all the deets!

A: Yep. Bocas del Toro in January with SWA. Nosara in February. Taking a break to snowboard in March, but back at it with Chicama in April. If I’m lucky and the starts align, I hope to take my kids to Indo this summer. 


*WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED LEARNING MORE ABOUT DANIELLE’S JOURNEY IN SURFING AND IN LIFE. STAY TUNED TO MEET ANOTHER INSPIRING AMIGAS NEXT MONTH! IN THE MEANTIME, CHECK OUT OUR MOST RECENT INTERVIEWS WITH KATIE CHOATE & RONI GOLD !

Advanced Surfer Mom Katarina Marlett Shares Her Surf Journey: Setting Goals & Sending It

Katarina has joined us on several advanced retreats over the years. Without fail, she shows up with a fiery passion to “send it” whether it be in the surf, or in her Halloween costumes. She recently joined us in northern Nicaragua for her third Tube Clinic and she took her “charge it” mentality next level, consistently taking off on the biggest, hollowest waves and coming up smiling regardless of the ensuing wipeouts. She earned the nickname “Senderella”!  
We caught up with Katarina post-retreat to learn about the impact that retreats with SWA have had on her surf journey.

Enjoy this journal-style entry by Katarina Marlett:

I’ve just had these burning goal inside for a while now: to surf more critical waves and to get that dreamy barrel! To set a goal and achieve it at any age. To show myself I can do it, and to be an example to my two boys!

Heading to Surf With Amigas Advanced Clinic with a host of like-minded women and badass surfers makes those goals  seem valid, intensified, and achievable. During the retreat, at every corner you are held up by the other women, both participants and staff, (and not in that cheesy way that makes you have nausea) but held in a way that actually means something and resonates. 

Sometimes I think back to moments on other surf trips, of being intimated by a boatful of male Aussie rippers headed to the peak, or times of being growled at in the water by the resident grump who judges your every move. Not here! At these retreats you swap smiles for breaky and fist bumps for lunch – in that not so nausea-inducing way that I mentioned before. No eye rolls… it’s the real goods! It’s the actual feeling of being happy and understood, of being supported in every way and encouraged to feel exactly how you want, when you want. No judgement. You’re given the best window to get the best surf and then every wave is on video for analyzing, celebrating, and improving. 

Every upset is met with a supportive Amiga so that you can wake up and try again, and every victory is celebrated with vigor. And every amiga, has similar goals. They share the exact enthusiasm you have, they want the same things!

The advanced retreats are unlike any others because all of these women rip! We all want to shred harder and our eyes are saucers to the lineup each and every time. We’re full of froth and every second is about achieving the most badass epic session possible.

Continue reading “Advanced Surfer Mom Katarina Marlett Shares Her Surf Journey: Setting Goals & Sending It”