During retreats we focus on avoiding crowds altogether as much as possible, but we know that most people don’t have the luxury of living in a spot or having a schedule where it’s possible to avoid other surfers. For all of you living a city surf lifestyle, here are some tips you can use to catch more waves even at a crowded spot.
Continue reading “3 Tips for Catching More Waves at a Crowded Surf Spot”
In July we hosted an advanced retreat in Southern Costa Rica. The advanced retreats are open to ladies that do have a solid amount of prior surf experience and are working on more complex turns, style, and higher level skills. This particular week we were a bit unlucky with swell. The waves were on the smaller side, but as you can see, it’s never flat and we still had plenty of surf to work with. The guests got video coaching with former pro surfer Holly Beck and participated in classroom sessions on style, how to read a surf forecast and the differences between surfboards.
It’s so fun to share the joy of the ocean with the next generation of little surfers. If you have kids that you want to get into surfing, bringing them to warm water waves with an easy channel for paddling out is the best way to do it! SWA founder Holly Beck has two kids that she’s been surfing with and has honed a program for getting kids up and riding that she wants to share with other parents! Older kids riding their own boards get to benefit from all the in water help as well as video coaching that the adults enjoy.
Check out the highlight video above from our first family friendly retreat in Costa Rica. This week we had kids from age 1-12 join us along with their parents and a few friends on a week of surfing, yoga, chocolate making, horseback riding and dance parties. It was so fun that we immediately put a couple more family retreats on the schedule.
If you have kids that you’d like to get into surfing, or kids that surf already that would love to join us for a weeklong adventure in warm water, or kids that are too young to surf that you’d like to setup with a nanny so you can go surfing…. join us on a family retreat!
Feb 16-23 2018, July 20-27 2018
Pricing is based on a per-family rate specific to your situation, ages of kids etc. We try to make it as affordable as possible, so email to discuss options. holly@surfwithamigas.com
Paula Bushardt is a retired engineer living in Florida who has joined us on several SWA retreats. She offered up this review of her experiences:
My first visit to Surf with Amigas was in 2012 in El Salvador at Las Flores. A dear friend called me up and said she wanted to go on a surf trip to celebrate her 40th birthday. I told her I was in as long as it was all-inclusive. I had been working many hours and was exhausted from life’s burdens and didn’t want to have to think for a week. The goal was to ride epic waves, get warm and go brain dead.
Here’s the highlight video from Paula’s first retreat with us, back when SWA was called “Suave Dulce!” Check out Paula’s wave at 2:13 of the video!
Continue reading “62 Year Old Paula Talks About Her Experience Surfing into her 60s”
On a retreat in Costa Rica in June, the group scored some big waves, and had awesome interaction with nature. Hand feeding monkeys, incredible caterpillars, and awesome beach moments. Surf with Amigas all women surf yoga adventure retreats in Costa Rica are the best!
We are getting down to the very end of our rainy season retreat series in Costa Rica with just one more retreat starting up today. This location is amazing! Check out the video above from a retreat in June that was just uploaded and let us know if you’d like to join us in the fall when we start up again! November retreats are already sold out but we do have some space in December and beyond!
Now that I have kids, and my 3.5 year old has started surfing, I’m getting really excited about hosting more family surf retreats. There’s nothing more fun than sharing the love of surfing with family. Seeing your little one’s eyes light up and that full face smile as they ride a wave alongside you is every bit as fulfilling as getting an amazing wave yourself – or so I’ve come to believe.
Eden is an Amiga in her 50s who recently joined us on her second retreat in Costa Rica. She has been surfing for 30 years and is so graceful in and out of the water. We asked her to talk about her experience surfing as a woman in later life and if she had any advice for other ladies her age. She said, “just do it, go surfing!” Great advice.
At Surf With Amigas we typically focus on value accommodations and go big on service in order to keep the price affordable. This one week we are offering a more luxurious accommodation option but still the awesome service you expect from us.
We’ll stay at a gorgeous house just 200m from the beach, but up a steep hill creating dramatic views. The house features 4 rooms to be split by 2-3 guests, each with it’s own private bathroom, AC, hot water, and high speed fiber optic WiFi. There’s a comfortable living room with big screen tv where we’ll do our surf coaching and classroom sessions, a relaxing pool and brand new yoga deck. The food will be catered by a local chef.
This region of Costa Rica is regarded as one of the most biologically diverse places in the world. Expect to see monkeys, sloths, toucans, scarlet macaws and a variety of other local creatures! There’s an option to ride horses deep into the jungle to check out a Native Indian reserve, do a boat trip to surf (conditions permitting), and we’ll have a ladies night out on the town. We’ll even learn to make chocolate and support the indigenous community by shopping their locally made products. We’ll relax and reconnect with nature.
We will be driving to surf but there are several spots just a short way down the road, and relaxing on the pool deck, enjoying the view after the session will make hopping in the car to surf more than worth it. There’s a fun wave a short drive to the South featuring mostly lefts but a few rights too, a few gentler waves down the beach, and a couple world class point breaks nearby. We’ll be on a surf safari to get you into the best waves possible.
If the swell is bigger we’ll be on a mission by boat or car to surf some of the longest waves in the world. We also like to explore some hidden nooks and crannies that are also super fun and often empty. We typically break up the group by ability so that everyone gets what they’re looking for and we don’t show up anywhere with a big crowd!
Price: Starting at $1950
What’s Included:
Optional Extras:
To book your flight, first fly into San Jose, Costa Rica (SJO), then connect to a domestic flight to Golfito. I recommend looking at the possible international options but then actually booking your Golfito flight before booking your international flight. I was told by an Amiga who has already booked hers that it looked like all the flights shown below on the schedule were available until she actually tried to book one of them. So book the smaller flight first just to be sure!
There are several flights per day into Golfito – an early morning, a midday, and a later afternoon flight. Our shuttle will pick you up on the midday or afternoon flight only since the hotel does not allow check in before noon. For the way out, choose the early or midday flight to take advantage of our shuttle.
For the flight from San Jose to Golfito, you need to book with Sansa Air directly – you can’t use Expedia. For questions on booking flights or other options if you can’t find an itinerary that works for you, send us an email!
The week of June 2-9 we hosted two simultaneous retreats both in Southern Costa Rica. One group of two couples and a pair of longtime friends stayed at boutique hotel and another group of advanced and beginner surfers stayed just down the road at our awesome jungle-surrounded primary location. Sometimes we joined the groups together for fun cocktail parties and classroom sessions, but we broke up the groups to surf separately to not overcrowd the lineup.
See below for the two highlight videos from the week!
There are a whole lot of random holidays cluttering up the calendar, but today is one of those that we are excited to celebrate! June 8th is World Oceans Day! It’s a day we give thanks for the ocean, its importance in our lives, and put extra thought into how we can protect it for future generations.
Continue reading “Help Protect the Ocean to Celebrate World Oceans Day”
