An Amiga who joined us at a recent Southern Costa Rica Jungle Retreat took home the footage and edited it into this awesome video. We usually do the edits ourselves, so it is really cool to see the experience purely from the perspective of one our guests. Here’s what it looked like last week in Costa Rica!
I posted this video to my Instagram account and received many questions. “Why?” “How did you survive that?” “Was your board in one piece afterwards?”
The most common question was, “how did you fall in order to not get hurt?” Well… let me explain.
The waves in that area break close to shore, get hollow, form plenty of tubes, but it’s rare to make it out of the tube. As a teenager, I developed a love for the vision you get from standing inside of a hollow wave, regardless of whether the wave let me out still standing. I got used to the crunchings that inevitably followed sending course sand deep inside my wetsuit, scalp and ears. I learned to survive closeout tubes and actually really enjoy them. Any pain that resulted was all worth that blissful momentary vision.
Since then, I’ve moved to a much more shapely Central American beach break near SWA retreats in Nicaragua where coming out of the tube is a whole lot more common. But, I still haven’t lost my love for a good crunching close out. Sometimes, if I know there’s no chance of making the wave, I actually feel more relaxed. I can just stand there and enjoy the view. This day there were a lot of good waves, but also a lot of really excited local kids scrambling to take every one. I got a little annoyed and paddled further south, deeper than anyone, to wait for my good one. This big lump came in, I saw it doubling up, knew there was little chance of making it, but felt like I needed to prove my point so the kids would back off. Plus…. I really wanted that view!
First let me say, the safest place is inside the tube. If you takeoff on a bigger hollow wave, and decide to straighten out towards shore (instead of pulling in), there’s a good chance the lip will land on your head, on the back of board, etc. The power from the lip landing on you as it falls is something you want to avoid. Alternatively, if you take off and try to pull out through the face, the wave will likely suck you up and “over the falls” which again can be more dangerous.
If it’s a small wave, I typically won’t jump off at all, but just ride as long as possible and let it knock me off as it will. If it’s a bigger one however, I will jump. There are two options:
1. Kick the board out in front of you and kinda just sit back, falling off behind the board. In theory I think this is a good idea, but in practice it’s not what I typically do.
2. Jump forward. Usually most of my momentum is going forward, hoping to make the tube, so I find my body wants to go forward as well. Therefore, I usually jump off forward and slightly to the falling lip side of my board, trying to fall as flat as possible (to not have an elbow or leg sticking out that will slam into the shallow bottom). Imagine diving forward into a body surf position. Typically I’ll do a little twist as I dive so that I land more on my back. That way if you do bounce off the bottom, it’s your shoulder or back that hits, instead of your face/elbow. That’s what I remember doing on this wave and while I did bounce off the shallow sandbar on my back, I wasn’t hurt. My board was miraculously also in one piece and I happily paddled out for more!
If you want to get coached to surf hollow waves, join me on one of our advanced tube riding retreats. More info here.
To see the best waves (including plenty I came out of) from the swell, click Play below.
Click for the tube rides, stay for the wipeouts. Our twice yearly advanced tube riding retreat is always one of the most entertaining of the year, full of guests who are ready to charge and push their levels which results in awesome rides and spectacular wipeouts. Check it out!
Continuing to add new retreat locations to our offerings, this is a highlight video of our first ever Surf With Amigas Retreat in Morocco. The ladies scored really fun user-friendly waves at a long right point break and explored Moroccan culture.
At these retreats our goal will be to help you develop the skills needed to get your first tube ride. We’ll be getting up early and paddling out at sunrise, then coming in for breakfast, and paddling out again! If the tide and wind are good, we’ll surf four or five hours per day. This retreat is about surfing our brains out!
We hosted an advanced shortboard retreat in North Nicaragua with the goal of teaching our guests how to get tubed. You will see a couple of long boarders as well who wanted to come and join in the fun without the pressure of getting tubed. This is the highlight video of the week with everyone included. There are waves for everyone in North Nicaragua and we scored an awesome swell and conditions all week.
If you’ve been on one of our retreats in Southern Costa Rica, you’ll recognize these awesome ladies as the ones who make your delicious meals, greet you with a smile at cocktail hour, and keep your room tidy. After watching all our awesome guests with big smiles on their faces after a great surf session, these ladies wanted to try it for themselves. We took them down to the beach and did a surf lesson as if they were guests, complete with a pre-session stretch and post-session video analysis. They loved it! It felt so good to share the stoke of surfing with our entire team.
Surf With Amigas has been sponsoring the Waves of Hope sea turtle conservation program since 2012. We just committed to another year doing our part to give back by supporting the program that buys baby sea turtle eggs from poachers turned conservationists to ensure there will be turtles in the lineup for years to come!
See below for the video we made way back in 2012 in our first year of the project. All the info is the same! If you’d like to participate in the release of baby turtles, join us for a retreat in Nicaragua.
We didn’t sleep that first night. The ground shook from the power of the crashing waves and when we finally walked down to the beach at first light, the bay was stacked to the horizon with perfect lines. We counted seven waves, each an identical copy of the previous, peeling perfectly along the point. A crew of older guys approached.
G-Land, off the coast of Java, was our promised land. There were three of us with our spirits synchronized and ready to venture to somewhere new: the exotic Delia Bense-Kang, part Mexican, Korean, and German, who’d grown up surfing the rough seas of Northern California and now works for the Surfrider Foundation. Then there was the gorgeous Silvia Yom, a well-traveled and talented filmmaker and photographer from Los Angeles. And myself, Alex Kelly, known as the fiery Spaniard, who, having finished my degree in Oceanography, started a surf school in southern Spain. We’d all connected by working for Surf With Amigas,an agency dedicated to inspire women in surfing and life through surf and yoga retreats.
As we boarded the fast boat full of dudes we could tell that it was a rare occurrence to see three single girls going to G-Land. Everyone was filled with anticipation, nerves, and hopes of scoring the waves of their lives. Picture perfect hollow barrels – big, long, and fast– with magical conditions were rumored for the next few days. The history and the vibe of transient surfers passing through to ride this dreamy barrel was palpable and the proof lay in a smattering of surf posters on the walls and broken boards strewn around.
In the morning the tide was too low to surf so everyone gathered to watch while sipping their coffee. Conversations consisted of contemplating what board to ride, best entry and exit strategy, where to sit. We did our best to eavesdrop and gather knowledge to build our plan of attack.
Excited but terrified, we eventually made it out…without actually realizing how big it was. With our eyes always set on the horizon we scratched over the top of the first set. There were a few older guys just charging and getting great rides. They didn’t look like they were in good shape but they were ripping. I felt so inspired by them. I was sitting the farthest out because I didn’t want to get worked on the inside and before I knew it, the horizon turned dark, signaling a huge set on the way.
For an instant, everything slowed down and every action and movement followed the previous one. I felt the lift and wind in my face as I cruised all the way down to the bottom of the wave. It started to suck up as it hit the reef and I tried to set my rail and get high to pass the section but it was too late and I wasn’t making it. I could feel the wave collapsing behind me so I straightened out to get as far away as I could from the lip. Then I waited to get hit by the avalanche of whitewater behind me. It slammed me down hard on the reef, but luckily butt first, and it bounced me right back up again. I grabbed the board and paddled back out for more. I caught another one right off the bat that aligned itself beautifully all the way into the channel.
As I paddled back out again I looked toward the lineup and saw a big one coming through. Everyone was eyeing it hungrily as one of the guys took off and ended up flying over the falls. Delia happened to be next in line and I yelled at her, “Send it!” She took off super late, made the drop, and disappeared into the barrel.
It all came together that day and we felt in tune with the ocean, catching one wave after another. The offshore wind was blowing into crystal-clear blue water, creating a wave you could only imagine in your wettest of surf dreams. Our friend Silvia was on the boat right in the lineup cheering and shooting the most epic surf shots. After a few days, we’d earned our places in the lineup and felt right at home with the crew at Bobby’s surf camp. And as all swell cycles come and go, so do these momentous life experiences. The trip confirmed our beliefs in taking life as it comes, to be open to whatever the world has to offer and live for what makes you feel alive and present. If you feel it, just send it.
Photos by Silvia Yom
You may have heard the saying “its not the destination its the journey”. It has always kind of annoyed me because the journey normally means long plane rides, delays, layovers, canceled flights etc., and I just want to get to the destination already and skip the “journey” part. But, it doesn’t have to be that way at all. It’s good to think of the journey as an adventure and wherever I end up, even if its not the place I had intended to go, as the destination.
My latest surf adventure in southern Costa Rica was by boat with 3 girlfriends, a cooler full of beer, a comically large quiver of surfboards, and a desire for right hand point breaks. We left not so bright but very early (4am) and loaded up the boat with all of our boards. We brought long boards, mid length boards and short boards. The great thing about traveling with a boat full of women is that we are always prepared with stylish surf costumes, which explains the plethora of bikinis, leggings, rash guards, surf hats, and some surf sun glasses. Oh, and just in case, the snorkel mask and fins.
