Category: blog

Use these Paddling Techniques to Catch More Waves

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Do you ever find yourself paddling for a ton of waves only to actually catch a few? Or do you find yourself feeling off-balance and slow while you’re paddling out? A few years back we made a paddle tutorial that may help you to improve your technique. It’s short, sweet, and right to the point!

The video below covers a few tips and techniques that will help you improve on the strength and length of your stroke, as well as your balance and control. It also includes a few things to avoid doing while you’re paddling.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH!

  1. Keep your fingers together and your hands in a scoop shape

  2. Dig your entire arm into the water (up to your armpit)

  3. Paddle in the shape of the Coco Chanel logo and draw big, “C’s” under your surfboard

  4. Keep your sh** tight!

 

For more surf tutorials check out our online surf training platform HERE!

 

Practice Yin Yoga with Reesie: Full Class!

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The spine is the highway connecting the brain to the body and is home to our spiritual centers, the chakras. It has 76 joints and 24 bones. It’s a big deal. Stretching to maintain a well-oiled spine is vital because it helps to keep the body mobile and fluid (and ready to surf).

The spine is a big deal

So, we’re stoked that we have another opportunity to practice Yin Yoga and get our spines movin’ with SWA’s resident yogi-surfer, Reesie! In this class, “…we’ll bend forward then backward then forward then backward and top if off with a twist”.

Grab one block and a few pillows (or a bolster if you have one), then click the video below to dive in!

https://vimeo.com/417468219
Donations for Reesie’s online Yin Yoga classes are being accepted at Venmo – @cherise-richards or paypal – reesier@yahoo.com

Add this Neck Stretch to Your Yoga Routine: Full Class with Reesie

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Feeling neck tension from sitting at your desk all day? Or from a long surf-session? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Need a little yoga fix-me-up?

block. neck. magic.

It’s the most requested yoga sequence during most of our retreats, and if you’ve been on a retreat with SWA before, I’m sure you already know exactly what we’re talking about! Its simple. Its magical. It feels so good. Its also pretty difficult to replicate without the guidance of a teacher, so we’re extra stoked that our yoga teacher Reesie just released an 11-minute tutorial video of the infamous, “block neck move”. This stretch-massage duo for the neck has yet to be named, so try it out and let us know if you can come up with a good name for it!

https://vimeo.com/411061345
Reesie’s online Yin Yoga classes are open for optional donation. Her info is as follows- Venmo: Cherise-Richards or PayPal: reesier@yahoo.com
To learn more about Cherise Richards, our head yoga instructor here at SWA,  click here.

SWA Community Raises More Than $2000 for Local Partners

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Surf With Amigas Costa Rica

To say we’re thrilled would be an understatement

The Surf With Amigas community just raised over $2,000 in less than 48 hours to support all of our local partners in Southern Costa Rica while they are out of work due to the COVID-19 situation.

Pedro - SWA Taxi Driver
Pedro // SWA Taxi Driver

We’ll admit that we were hesitant to put out a fundraiser in the first place, knowing that so many of us are struggling financially, but we also realized it wouldn’t hurt to try and see what happens. We’re extremely excited about the success of the fundraiser and how the SWA community has come together to support these deserving folks that we all know and love. However, we’re not surprised that you all rallied to show your support- the SWA community is full of big hearts and the best surf ladies out there.

Hotel Staff (and their surf instructors)

We want to give a BIG thank you to everyone who has been able to donate, and another thank you to everyone who is holding this special group of people in your hearts! If you’re interested in reading the story that inspired this fundraiser or interested in donating, please click here.

 

As always,

Pura Vida!

 

 

We Love Party Waves

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Surf With Amigas Party Waves

If you’re like us, you know that the only thing more fun than riding a wave solo, is to share it with a friend.

If you happen to surf in a crowd regularly, maybe you want to team up with your friends and work on your party waves. Here is a selection of party waves from our surf coaches over the last couple of months to give you some ideas.

Surf Video: Ladies Longboarding in Costa Rica

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Surf With Amigas Costa Rica Longboard

Here are some highlights from our very first retreat fully taking over the Longboard Surf House in Southern Costa Rica for what had planned to be the whole season. We had an awesome group of 12 ladies of all ages from early 20s to 50s! This was the last retreat that we were able to run before the COVID-19 situation closed borders and had us all sheltering in place. It’s awesome to look back on a sunny, surf-filled happy time with friends and dream of the time we’ll be able to enjoy this sort of thing!

Do this Yoga Sequence to Improve Your Duck Dive

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This duck dive-inspired yoga sequence is easy to do at home! Many of the same muscles engaged during a duck dive are also engaged during a simple vinyasa flow.

This simple yoga exercise aims to address three parts of the duck dive:

  1. Core Strength

  2. Arm Strength

  3. Balance

Add this sequence to your daily practice to help commit these duck dive movements into muscle memory, so that once you hit the water to surf your duck dive will feel natural and strong.

 

Practice Yin Yoga with Reesie

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Surf With Amigas Yoga

Yin Yoga for the Hips

Unwind with another virtual Yin Yoga class brought to you by SWA instructor Reesie and her adorable lil’ pup Ruban. Although we can’t practice Yin Yoga in the jungle with all of you as usual right now, we’re stoked to have access to the next best thing… which is Reesie’s donation-based Yin class right at home! Good music playlist and all. This hour-long Yin style class is centered around the hips.

Reesie is accepting donations for her classes through Venmo (@cherise-Richards) or PayPal (reesier@yahoo.com) but in her own words, “…if you can’t, dude I get it. Either way, hope this feels good!”.

If you missed Reesie’s most recent shoulder class, you can find it here. Enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/409288787

 

 

New SWA Instructor Releases Surf Film

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Surf With Amigas Costa Rica

One of our newest surf instructors, Florida grom Jazmine Dean,  just spent her first season working retreats and adventuring with the Surf With Amigas crew down in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. She created this super rad little surf film and just released it last week! Enjoy the film and a note from Jaz below-

Surf with amigas x Jazmine

Pura Vida!

 

My life changed in the season I spent down here as a first time Surf With Amigas instructor just as much as Amigas often say their lives change during retreats. I’m currently still down in Southern Costa Rica and I’ve spent more consecutive months living here than I have spent living in any other foreign country before. I spend my free days in-between retreats almost the same as I spend my, “work”, days during retreats, and most of my closest friends down here were formed through the connections and roots that SWA has created here in the local community.

This film barely scratches the surface of how this life has reconnected me to my roots as a soul surfer and the good times had. I understand surfing and have for a long time, but these retreats are just as much about personal growth as they are about surfing a wave, and for that, I thank the guests, our Amigas, so much.

I’m most grateful of all for the women I’ve met through the retreats and I took a little from each person I spent time with. It’s possible that some of you reading this were on some of the retreats I worked at and maybe even appear in a scene or two! Anyways, please enjoy the film and thanks for watching.

Pura Vida,

-Jazmine

A Day in the Life During Shelter In Place with SWA

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This week we decided to film a glimpse into a day in the life of the Surf With Amigas crew during, “Shelter in Place”, in Southern Costa Rica and Northern Nicaragua! We’re social distancing, taking it day by day, and slowing things down to appreciate all the little moments.

Jackie George, surf with amigas, Costa Rica

Jackie George is a recently-married doggy mama who loves booty burn classes, bodysurfing, and afternoon croquet. She’s currently sheltering in place near the end of the road in Southern Costa Rica.

 

 

Holly Beck, Surf With Amigas, Costa RicaHolly Beck is a single mom of two young kids who would really love to be chilling in a hammock with a book, but did I mention “single mom with two young kids”? She is also sheltered in Southern Costa Rica.

 

 

Chloe Piester, surf with amigas, vlog, NicaraguaChloe Piester is a college student who was ecstatic when all her courses moved to online. She hopped on one of the last available flights to Nicaragua before the borders were closed to quarantine with her boyfriend in a temporarily closed-down hotel.

 

These are their stories from one day of Shelter in Place. Enjoy our first ever SWA Vlog!