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 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 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 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!
I posted this video to my Instagram account and received many questions. “Why?” “How did you survive that?” “Was your board in one piece afterwards?”
The most common question was, “how did you fall in order to not get hurt?” Well… let me explain.
I grew up in Los Angeles’ South Bay, an area with plenty of surf, but unfortunately mostly beach breaks without a lot of shape.
The waves in that area break close to shore, get hollow, form plenty of tubes, but it’s rare to make it out of the tube. As a teenager, I developed a love for the vision you get from standing inside of a hollow wave, regardless of whether the wave let me out still standing. I got used to the crunchings that inevitably followed sending course sand deep inside my wetsuit, scalp and ears. I learned to survive closeout tubes and actually really enjoy them. Any pain that resulted was all worth that blissful momentary vision.
Since then, I’ve moved to a much more shapely Central American beach break near SWA retreats in Nicaragua where coming out of the tube is a whole lot more common. But, I still haven’t lost my love for a good crunching close out. Sometimes, if I know there’s no chance of making the wave, I actually feel more relaxed. I can just stand there and enjoy the view. This day there were a lot of good waves, but also a lot of really excited local kids scrambling to take every one. I got a little annoyed and paddled further south, deeper than anyone, to wait for my good one. This big lump came in, I saw it doubling up, knew there was little chance of making it, but felt like I needed to prove my point so the kids would back off. Plus…. I really wanted that view!
If you’re going to go for closeouts, or even are just trying to learn how to get tubed, knowing how to fall definitely helps.
First let me say, the safest place is inside the tube. If you takeoff on a bigger hollow wave, and decide to straighten out towards shore (instead of pulling in), there’s a good chance the lip will land on your head, on the back of board, etc. The power from the lip landing on you as it falls is something you want to avoid. Alternatively, if you take off and try to pull out through the face, the wave will likely suck you up and “over the falls” which again can be more dangerous.
The key to falling as safely as possible is to jump off from inside the tube.
If it’s a small wave, I typically won’t jump off at all, but just ride as long as possible and let it knock me off as it will. If it’s a bigger one however, I will jump. There are two options:
1. Kick the board out in front of you and kinda just sit back, falling off behind the board. In theory I think this is a good idea, but in practice it’s not what I typically do.
2. Jump forward. Usually most of my momentum is going forward, hoping to make the tube, so I find my body wants to go forward as well. Therefore, I usually jump off forward and slightly to the falling lip side of my board, trying to fall as flat as possible (to not have an elbow or leg sticking out that will slam into the shallow bottom). Imagine diving forward into a body surf position. Typically I’ll do a little twist as I dive so that I land more on my back. That way if you do bounce off the bottom, it’s your shoulder or back that hits, instead of your face/elbow. That’s what I remember doing on this wave and while I did bounce off the shallow sandbar on my back, I wasn’t hurt. My board was miraculously also in one piece and I happily paddled out for more!
If you want to get coached to surf hollow waves, join me on one of our advanced tube riding retreats. More info here.
To see the best waves (including plenty I came out of) from the swell, click Play below.
Click for the tube rides, stay for the wipeouts. Our twice yearly advanced tube riding retreat is always one of the most entertaining of the year, full of guests who are ready to charge and push their levels which results in awesome rides and spectacular wipeouts. Check it out!
We are gearing up for one of our favorite retreats of the season, the Advanced Tube Riding Clinic in North Nicaragua! Here’s a highlight from Holly surfing the beach break from our most recent tube riding clinic.
At these retreats our goal will be to help you develop the skills needed to get your first tube ride. We’ll be getting up early and paddling out at sunrise, then coming in for breakfast, and paddling out again! If the tide and wind are good, we’ll surf four or five hours per day. This retreat is about surfing our brains out!
We hosted an advanced shortboard retreat in North Nicaragua with the goal of teaching our guests how to get tubed. You will see a couple of long boarders as well who wanted to come and join in the fun without the pressure of getting tubed. This is the highlight video of the week with everyone included!
There are waves for everyone in North Nicaragua and we scored an awesome swell and conditions all week. So much fun! Be sure to watch til the end to enjoy the hilarious wipeout reel!
Surf With Amigas has been sponsoring the Waves of Hope sea turtle conservation program since 2012. We just committed to another year doing our part to give back by supporting the program that buys baby sea turtle eggs from poachers turned conservationists to ensure there will be turtles in the lineup for years to come!
See below for the video we made way back in 2012 in our first year of the project. All the info is the same! If you’d like to participate in the release of baby turtles, join us for a retreat in Nicaragua.
Surf With Amigas is all about women’s empowerment, overcoming fear, supporting each other, and doing good. We discovered a sister organization with the same goals in the Groundswell Community Project and are teaming up to host a retreat in Northern Nicaragua the week of Oct 26-Nov 2 2019.
Groundswell Community Project Surf & Service Retreat
This retreat includes the intention is to provide a safe and brave space to dive deeper into self love, sea love, and surf-sisterhood together. Our time together will flow with daily meditation, yoga, environmental conservation and local community engagement projects, and of course…. opportunities to surf and explore the beauty that Nicaragua has to offer!
Our hope is that you not only have the most epic surfsister surf trip of your life, but also dive deeper into self love, sea love, and community through an enriched surf therapy experience in the warm water waves of Nicaragua.
The Retreat Experience
This retreat will be focused on surfing and yoga as always, however it will have a larger service component than our normal retreats with daily opportunities to connect to the local community and a focus on self-knowledge and growth.
Retreat Details
Starting at $1500
What’s Included
Two way airport shuttle between resort and Managua International Airport (provided you arrive and depart on the designated days/times)
7 nights accommodation in shared cabana (available for 2-4 guests per cabana)
4 deliciously healthy fresh meals per day (early morning cold breakfast, hot brunch, lunch, and dinner, plus dessert)
Surf Therapy sessions are facilitated by licensed trauma informed therapists and surf coaches that hold intentional safe and brave space to invite your body, mind, and heart to join you in the process and adventure of surfing. Mother Ocean is a powerful therapy room! Be open and ready to see what waves of wisdom she has instore for you!
In April, Civil Unrest Temporarily Put Retreats on HOld
Up until June 2018, Nicaragua was the primary location to join Surf With Amigas on a weeklong adventure of surf, sun, new friends, and awesome good times. When anti-government protests broke out in April of 2018 and turned violent, we hoped they would pass quickly. Months later, daily bad news led us to make the very difficult decision to temporarily shift all our retreats to Costa Rica. You can read more details about the situation in a blog post we published in June via this link.
Right now the situation is much calmer, but the struggle isn’t over. The Nicaraguan people have decided they want a new president, but his term isn’t up until 2021 and he has shown no signs of stepping down early.
Nicaragua is safe for tourists
For now the situation in some areas of the country, particularly the areas around universities, is still tense. Protests and the government response to those protests are ongoing. But, word from our friends on the ground is that everything at the beach is now, and has always been, totally peaceful. Tourists can travel freely and safely between the Managua International Airport and the coast. Once at the beach, the situation is like it was eight or nine years ago – great waves with many fewer surfers in the water!
Most of our staff that had built a life in Nicaragua are returning this year. I am going myself for two weeks in October and bringing my 2 and 4 year old kids. I obviously wouldn’t be doing that if I was worried about safety. I will also be there for a month in Jan/Feb and we have decided to add one retreat to the schedule during that time.
Join us for One retreat this winter in Nicaragua February 9-16
February 9-16 we will be running a one week retreat at our old home base in Northern Nicaragua. We’ll open it up to men and women in case you ladies would feel better bringing your menfolk along. February is a great month with all day sun and typically awesome wind patterns. That week also has high tide mornings which is ideal for the best breaks in the area.
I am incredibly excited to host this retreat alongside our team. Will you join us? For more info on the location click here: Northern Nicaragua Eco Resort
Our local friends and partners might be even more excited than I am. The sudden drop in tourism has left so many Nicaraguans without work, struggling to feed their families. They need us to return!
Ever since SWA hosted our first retreat at Coco Loco in November of 2010, it has been our home base in Nicaragua. We have had hundreds of guests come through and experience the wonderful place. While Surf With Amigas staff are the ones guiding guests out into the surf and through a yoga practice, it’s the smiling local men and women serving plates of delicious food, keeping rooms clean and comfortable, and offering to help whenever guests need anything that have made the retreats extra special. It’s been a team effort.
The People of Nicaragua need our help right now
Due to the ongoing civil unrest in Nicaragua (read more about that here), we moved all our summer retreats to Costa Rica. We are lucky in that we have the option of avoiding the security issues with a change in venue. We were obviously not the only retreat company to make that change, and therefore resorts have been empty or way under capacity. As a result, resorts are closing their doors and laying off valued staff who have been working at their jobs for over a decade. These people now have no way to support their families.
How to Catch more waves with the Coco Chanel Paddle
Everyone knows the Coco Chanel logo right? The two interlocking Cs are not just a sign of luxury, but also a great way to paddle. If you want to have the most efficient paddle technique you need to increase the length of your stroke. Paddling in the shape of a C achieves that. If you use the Coco Chanel Paddle you’ll be covering more distance faster. That means more waves and fewer turtle rolls! This video will take you through some things to do and others to avoid to improve your paddle skills and have you catching more waves!
Why it’s best to learn to surf from women
At Surf With Amigas, we take a humorous approach to teaching surf skills. You’ll learn to turn with your boobs and to avoid paddling like a T-Rex. You’ll also hear that you should paddle like the Coco Chanel logo. Come learn and laugh with us! That’s the difference of a surf camp run by women!
For more instructional videos, check out our Surf Completely page!
Holly 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 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.
