Supporting Local Youth Through Art in Costa Rica

At Surf With Amigas, we are always looking for constructive ways to engage with the communities where we host retreats. Whether it’s funding sea turtle conservation, donating school books to indigenous children, giving scholarships for higher education, or encouraging women to participate in sports by sponsoring a local ladies kickball team, we feel good about giving back wherever we are.

In this case, we have become friends with an amazingly inspiring woman named Hadas, who owns a vegetarian cafe and surf view cabanas as her day job, and offers art classes to kids and adults to feed her passion for art. She runs an open art studio called De Colores in Pavones, Costa Rica.

The art studio is dedicated to promoting well being and deep healing through the creative process of art making. That’s a goal we can get behind! 

 

We are so happy to donate funds to support free art classes for local children to explore and express themselves through color, textures, and the allowance to get messy! Here are a few photos from a recent class.

By supporting us, you are supporting her, and thereby supporting them. Thank you!

New Retreat Added – Luxury Surf Yoga Retreat Southern Costa Rica Nov 17-24

surf with amigas, luxury, retreat, surf, yoga, womens, costa rica,
“Luxurious accommodations with an unforgettable view”

The Accommodations

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.

The Surf

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!


Our first retreat at this location will be November 17-24 2018. If you can’t make it that week but would love to check out this location, let us know and we may add more dates to the schedule.

Email [email protected] for Questions

Southern Costa Rica Luxury Surf and Yoga Retreat Details

Price: Starting at $1950

What’s Included:

  • Two way transportation from the Golfito Airport (provided you arrive and depart on the designated days/times)
  • 7 nights accommodation in a shared room (2-3 per room depending on size of room) with AC, hot water, private bathroom and high speed WiFi
  • 4 deliciously healthy fresh meals per day (early morning cold breakfast, hot brunch, lunch, and dinner, plus dessert)
  • Unlimited coffee, tea, water, and juice
  • Daily individualized in-water surf coaching/instruction/guiding
  • Daily one on one post- session video coaching with one of our instructors
  • Video footage from surf sessions
  • A group of awesome new Amigas who may become your lifetime surfing friends!
  • Surfboard rental
  • Daily yoga classes
  • Adventures such as horseback riding, jungle exploring, boat trips, hiking, chocolate making, monkey viewing, ladies night out, etc.

Optional Extras:

  • Massages
  • Alcohol
  • Tips for staff

Book Flights

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!


 

 

 

Last Costa Rican Retreat of the Season Scored Sick Waves

The last retreat of our winter/spring 2016 series in Costa Rica was blessed with very large surf. At first the Amigas weren’t very excited to hear that until we explained that it meant that we’d be able to surf some different spots that are more protected and only break with a larger swell. Everyone ended up getting the right sized waves for their appetites and scored some of the best waves of their lives. We got so much great footage that we broke it up into two videos. See below!

Amigas Score Pumping Low Tide Pavones on Day 0 of the Retreat

[youtube=http://youtu.be/2Rje8h3hudU]
The retreat hadn’t even officially started yet, but three of the Amigas showed up on the early flight and with a solid swell running and the froth factor high, we took them to Pavones for their warm up session. It was incredible! Holly and Michelle were frothing so hard. The current was ripping along the point making it impossible to stop paddling for even a second while well overhead doubling up lefts were steam rolling down the point.

We were a little nervous taking the girls out at first. Molly is from Chicago and had only surfed one week before, during her first retreat with us almost a year ago. Luckily she’s a really strong paddler and had total faith in the instructors. She dodged the sets and scored a couple of sweet rides.

Karen is 66 years old and lives on Kauai. She is so inspirational. She paddled out through a heavy set and then out to the peak. Her goal this week is to catch some waves without going to her knees. She caught 4 or 5 of the most beautiful waves before calling it a day.

Amber is from the gulf coast of Florida and surprised herself being able to surf big Pavones, especially on the first day of the retreat. She took a gnarly wipeout on a big wave that was unfortunately not captured on video, but shook it off and got one good wave after that.

It was so unbelievably fun!amber pavones

holly pavones

holly pavones lip crack

karen pavones

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michelle pavones

molly pavones

Costa Rican Adventure – Surf Yoga and More

This is the highlight video from our first ever retreat in Costa Rica. As you can see, it was incredibly awesome. We hiked, we danced, we rode horses, we explored the jungle, we did yoga, and of course we surfed! We are super stoked and have decided to make the Costa Rican retreats an annual event. Stay tuned for details on future retreats.[youtube=http://youtu.be/sGUEoiA5Mhk]

First Look at a Costa Rica Retreat

Our first ever retreat in Costa Rica was a great success. Super cute long peeling lefts in warm water with great friends. The girls were cruising and shredding and loving life on the edges of the jungle. Everyone improved so much over the course of the week. We’re loving this place and looking forward to the retreat starting up tomorrow.

Join us in Spring 2015 for our next Costa Rican retreats!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/rJIAfYeUmkA]

Cool perspective on a long left

I came across this video of a shredding goofy-foot surfing a long left and it reminded me of Pavones. I’m so excited about that trip and am looking forward to trying to get some shots like this of Amigas shredding with the GoPro. We have just one spot left for the March 29-April 5th week and 3 spots left for the April 6-13th. Imagine long lefts like this, but no wetsuit required! If you’re interested, email me asap! [email protected]

 

Spring Retreat in Southern Costa Rica

Previously, we had avoided planning any retreats in Costa Rica because Costa Rica is so overdone. Instead, we’ve been focusing on less common locations like Nicaragua, El Salvador, and the Philippines. But as a goofy-footer, I’ve always eyed those long lefts at Pavones with amazement. It’s time to go check them out! Anyone want to surf super long lefts with me?p sd-mata-pavones2-4-1-5

Like any world class wave, Pavones can be crowded. So, we’ll stay at a mellow place in the jungle about a ten minute drive (or 20 min bike ride) from the point. This place has a private little wave right out front that is super easy and user-friendly when small, and more powerful and tubular when the swell is bigger. The nice thing, is that we should have it mostly to ourselves! There are several other waves within walking distance of where we’ll stay which will be awesome for the afternoon sessions. We can even hop in a boat and check out some rights across the bay!

p Allison_pavonesp3 girl stand up p3 girl shredp girl surfer

We’ll hit up the main spot at off times to try to avoid the worst of the crowd and we’re going slightly early in the season, so it shouldn’t be too bad. Plus, we’ll paddle out in a pack of bikinis and smiles, so that should definitely work in our favor!

The place we’ll stay is nestled in between jungle and ocean. This region in Costa Rica is regarded as one of the most biologically diverse places in the world. There’s a nature trail from the hotel to a waterfall where we’ll check out monkeys! We’ll go on an adventure to a native indigenous village. We’ll relax and reconnect with nature.

p2 hike-9 p2 hike-5paardrijden-4 p Scott-Alexander-Surfer-Girl-Nataly-Bernold-01

The accommodations only have space for 10 amigas and while some of the rooms are slightly more eco-friendly than others, all are super comfortable.

p rancho buricap burica porch terra vistap burica Inside-Ola-vista p burica Jungle-lodge-frontp burica boathouse porch p burica boathous-inside

There will be yoga too of course!

p2 yoga p2 yoga 2

Retreat details

Dates: March 29 – April 5, April 6 – 13

Price: $1700
Includes:
– Transfer to/from the resort to/from the Golfito Airport
– 7 nights accommodation in a shared room
– All meals (alcoholic beverages are extra)
– Surf coaching/instruction with video feedback
– Surfboard rental (if you can’t bring your own)
– Daily yoga
– Other adventures

Travel info:
Fly into San Jose Costa Rica on whatever airline works best for where you’re flying from.
Connect with Sansa Regional Airlines and get a flight from San Jose to Golfito. They have three flights per day and flights look about $103 each way ($206 roundtrip).
We’ll pick you up at the Golfito airport.

For booking info, contact [email protected]

Check out this video of an 8 year old girl loving the long lefts of Pavones

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrLcfAxtE0o]

And to see what 4 years of surfing awesome long lefts can do for your surfing, here she is at 12 years old!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6LBlV2CG4w]