[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1AH-KPIahU]
Rocco is a surfing Rottweiler at El Coco Loco Resort in Nicaragua. He loves ladies, chasing baby cows, and peanut butter toast. He’s been surfing a few years but recently caught his very first green wave. Just like humans, once he got that one, he became totally addicted to surfing! He’s super cute!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWxC2yocRt8]
Drop a jalapeno rum shot into a glass of club soda then drink it down. Hike to the top of an active volcano, put on an orange jumpsuit, and boogie it up before sliding down. Paddle out to super cute overhead waves, admire the pelicans, paddle in, and charge down!
This is how we do it! It’s not just about surfing, it’s about enjoying every minute with a new set of awesome Amigas!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTawELrlFVo]
Lots of sunscreen, painted toes on the reef, hunting for bait with a super sweet knife, big longboard boats, homemade fishing pole, knee paddling past the shorebreak, then sit, wait, laugh, and maybe even catch something!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/SNK1mLf5ZJQ]
Jackie, Jamie, and Holly took out a new 9’2 Equinox longboard with a GoPro mount on the nose for a sunset session and captured some super cute moving pictures.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaCTjrQ7Or4]
You’ve heard the word gnarly but what does it mean? If you come on a retreat with Surf With Amigas you’ll hear “gnarly” used quite a bit. It can be good, it can be bad, it can be awesome! Here’s a little tutorial on what to expect if someone tells you Surf With Amigas women’s surf and yoga retreats are “gnarly!”
At the end of retreats, we usually pick a few ladies and ask them their favorite experience of the week. Was it the surfing, the horseback riding, the opportunity to share awesome adventures with new like-minded friends? Of course it’s usually all of those things, but this week Kara summed it up in a way that I hadn’t imagined, but really like. She said, “Every day there’s an opportunity to overcome fear.”
A lot of ladies come down with a fear of the ocean, horseback riding, or volcano boarding, but with the support of eachother and the staff at Surf With Amigas you end up feeling totally empowered, bad ass, and like you can do anything! That’s our goal!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us0ws40cZM4]
In between surf sessions we get silly at Surf With Amigas. Beers go down on the beach before second breakfast. We hike volcanoes, dance at the top, and then slide down. It’s super fun and awesome and all the wipeouts are well worth it! Check out these silly characters having a super good time.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVZmoa2jmg0]
Six days of shredding awesomeness – very loosely to the tune of 12 days of Christmas
On the first day of shredding, my sister said to me – “I just don’t want to wipeout, please”
On the second day of shredding, an Amiga said to me – “Which one is a cute one?”, and “I just don’t want to Wipeout again, Please!”
On the third day of shredding, an Amiga said to me – “I’m not an ambi-turner”, “Which one is a cute one?”, and “I just don’t want to Wipeout again, Please!”
On the fourth day of shredding, an Amiga said to me – “Did she say shit-nipples?”, “I’m not an ambi-turner”, “Which one is a cute one?”, and “I just don’t want to Wipeout again, Please!”
On the fifth day of shredding, an Amigas said to me – “I want to marry a younger version of Richard”, “Did she say shit-nipples?”, “I’m not an ambi-turner”, “Which one is a cute one?”, and “I just don’t want to Wipeout again, Please!”
On the sixth day of shredding, the Amigas said to me – “Thank God for second breakfast!”, “I want to marry a younger version of Richard”, “Did she say shit-nipples?”, “I’m not an ambi-turner”, “Which one is a cute one?”, and “I just don’t want to Wipeout again, Please!”
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29NtxeRr59c]
Surf With Amigas is mostly about surfing, yoga, and having awesome adventures with new friends, but we also like to help out the local community. We work closely with Waves of Hope – a non-profit working to improve the lives of local community members by focusing first on education on whatever project they have going on at the time. Right now they are engaged in re-vamping the local schools and making them more comfortable for learning. We took an afternoon to help clean, sand, and paint a middle school classroom.
I asked an Amiga – Tiffany Joh, who happens to be a second year pro on the LPGA tour, and our newest fastest learner ever – if she had any advice for others. She didn’t have an answer on the spot, but sent us an email after she got home and had a chance to think about it a bit. I love advice and think she nailed it with these suggestions…
Holly– the last night you asked me if I had any “beginner awesomeness” advice, and I was kind of caught off-guard; no one’s really asked me a question like that before. I mean, let’s face it, If I get up in the morning and remember to put on underwear, it’s a pretty good day for me.
But on the flight back home, I was reflecting on my week and I DID realize one thing I learned over the course of the retreat: How to truly relish the experience of being a beginner.
If most people are like me, they like to stick to their strengths. It’s a lot easier on the ego and no one really enjoys being the “kook” in any situation, especially as you get older; I feel like I’ve always been in a rush to grow out of the novice stage, but honestly, isn’t being a beginner the coolest part? And even as we get better at something, isn’t it beneficial to still have that beginner mindset?
This week was a week of firsts for me. Not just with the surfing, but horseback riding, doing a headstand, volcano boarding, and (cough) Mojitos…and every day I felt like I was learning something new and climbing a steep learning curve. If we went into every experience with the humility and “froth” of a beginner, imagine how much less critical of ourselves we’d be and how much more fun we’d have.
So that’s my revised answer to the question. Leave your ego at the airport, lean into your weaknesses, and savor the process of getting better.
Dale Pues!
xx Sloppy Joh (aka Tiffany)
