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Hayla is the youngest of five sisters of which Holly Beck is the oldest. She learned to surf at 7 years old, but got annoyed by too many wipeouts and quit. At 19 years old, she came to Nicaragua to Surf With Amigas and rediscovered her love of surfing.
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Hilariousness! We called her Sloppy Joh since that’s part of her email address and she’s way too silly to be simply called Tiffany. She has the biggest smile, loudest laugh, and endless amounts of energy. She claims to not be a very athletic golfer, but seemed like a total natural athlete, who picked up surfing faster than anyone i’ve ever seen. On day 1 she was going straight in whitewash, by day 2 she was dropping in and turning, and by the last day she was pumping down the line. “Yeah, that just happened!”
Go Sloppy Joh!
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.
[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)
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Every once in a while we get an Amiga who is a total badass. Jenna had never surfed before (other than randomly renting a board and flailing about). She set a new bar for fastest improver ever! It might be her experience wake surfing that led to her feeling so comfortable on the board, but we’ve never had a first timer dropping in, angling, and turning so consistently by the end of the week. She even fell off a horse at a full gallop and got up smiling, then got right back on the horse and continued galloping – another first! Jenna – you are awesome!
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
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Most of the time ladies get all the fun. It’s like a week-long girls’ night out and we like it that way! We don’t have to worry about showing too much crack, high pitched squeals, calling waves “cute”, or incessant girl talk. Sometimes though, for guys that come highly recommended by Amigas, we do allow some testosterone into the group. Why not? We like guys too!
Meet John – a lifeguard from LA who has done some acting, who isn’t afraid to call a wave “cute” or shake his hips on the dance floor with steamy salsa style.
He came down to improve his surfing and left the retreat feeling a lot better!
If you’ve got a great guy friend who isn’t afraid to get silly with the girls, send him our way! We have a guy friendly retreat Feb 1-8 2013 with a few spots remaining!
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We are not alcoholics! But we do like to have a good time and indulge in the fine beverages available. Nicaragua is world famous for it’s Flor de Cana rum and we think it is delicious. In between surf sessions we get up to all kinds of craziness and fun. We laugh, talk about life, dreams, goals, and create friendships that will last long past the week-long adventure.
“The thing that holds people back from achieving their dreams is self-doubt” – Jackie George
Believe in yourself and anything is possible!
