Nikki Belcher has been teaching yoga for Surf With Amigas for a few months now and she is awesome. She is very spiritual, in touch with the moon, and just exudes a calming healing energy. She has recently learned to surf, so she understands the mindset necessary to overcome fear of the ocean and big waves, and also the right yoga moves to stretch out tired paddling muscles.
She also has a new website called the Fairy Lounge.
We love getting thank yous from Amigas. It helps reinforce our feeling that what we’re doing not only provides a ton of fun and surfing knowledge but that it can also be more than that. We often get Amigas coming down who just really need to get away. Whether it’s a recent relationship breakup, job change, family heartache, or just re-evaluating life choices, sometimes it’s more than a vacation that people are looking for. Getting an email like this makes us smile to realize that we were able to help someone beyond just improving their pop-up. See below for Kathy’s message. Thanks Kathy!
I was definitely missing Nicaragua already when I got out of the airport to rain and 5 degrees the other night. Although I did get a pretty excited welcome from this girl (aka best snuggler ever), which mostly made me forget hammocks for a moment.
While I know you can’t take total credit for how awesome the other people in our group were ;), you guys totally set the tone for a supportive, joyful, trusting place. The fact that it’s paradise with a tropical bird chorus every morning doesn’t hurt either, nor do the great teaching skills both surf and yoga-wise.
Oversharing time, but it’s relevant. My dad passed away (cancer) in October, and while that was sad more than painful (if that makes any sense), it definitely ranks up there as one of life’s more stressful events. I was looking to get away, to turn off responsibilities and cares for a little bit and reset my happy meter, and what I found far exceeded my expectations. Don’t get me wrong!! – I’m not conflating surfing camp with Tara’s wilderness therapy (that sounds like a BAD IDEA for both you guys and anyone expecting something like that), but I found the week to be really healing. Having an ear to ear grin for most of the day, doing something like catching a wave, which just like dancing or riding fresh powder or watching my dog wriggle around on her back fills me with pure joy (oh wait, there WAS also dancing and watching dogs be their goofy wonderful selves!), being around people who are fun, engaged in the world and interesting and also are open and compassionate, and beautiful surroundings, good food, getting exercise, being outside all day…..those are my personal ingredients for some serious recharging and self-care. Which is what I MEANT to try to say the morning I left, instead of getting all teary 🙂
Thanks! y muchas besos,
Kathy
