Tag: surf with amigas

Improve Your Bottom Turn with These 4 Steps

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The bottom turn. It’s the setup for most maneuvers in surfing. Want to get barreled? Do a cutback? A snap off the top?

A good bottom turn will set you up for success

We know its not as simple as it sounds, so here we are. We encourage you to play around with these techniques. Consider how your board feels different under your feet each time you try something new, and practice, practice, practice.

Below are 4 simple steps to improve your bottom turn:

  1. Keep your back foot on the tail pad

The tail (back end) of the surfboard is the point where the board pivots and turns. If your stance is in the middle of your board and your back foot isn’t placed on the tail pad, you may notice that the board feels stiff and difficult to turn. If you don’t usually get your foot all the way back there, just start here! Practice this. Notice how the board starts to respond differently. Just get used to placing your foot back there, then move on to step 2.

  1. Position yourself at the bottom of the wave

Mid-wave bottom turns just aren’t as good. Why? If you’re already halfway up the wave, there’s not much space to really set up for a good turn! The best a mid-wave bottom turn will ever produce is an average horizontal cutback. Try to get speed and pump yourself down to the bottom of the wave to set up for the bottom turn. This will ultimately give you more space on the wave to work with and result in a bigger, better maneuver.

  1. Touch the wave with your inside hand/fingertips

Once you’re positioned at the bottom of the wave, try to reach your inside hand or fingertips down to touch the wave. This will automatically pull your chest down closer to the wave and get you in a lower stance. It also creates a pivot point on the wave. Creating this pivot point will not only give you more control, but will help direct the nose of your board more vertically up the wave. Getting the hang of this is seriously a game-changer! When you try it out you’ll know what I mean. It may be a technique that you’ve never even noticed before, but after reading this I encourage you to go watch a few surf videos (of short boarders) and you’ll notice that talented surfers do it on almost every single wave.

  1. Look up (or ahead) at the section on the wave that you want to go to

The momentum from your bottom turn needs to take you somewhere! As you reach your inside hand into the water you should already be looking up (or ahead) at the part of the wave you’d like to go to. The purpose of a bottom turn is ultimately to set up for a barrel, snap, or cutback. Keep this in mind and keep your eyes on the prize as you set it all up.

 

We hope this 4 step guide to improve your bottom turn is helpful and encouraging. If you try out these techniques and they work for you. CLICK HERE to watch our full video breakdown!

Use these Paddling Techniques to Catch More Waves

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Do you ever find yourself paddling for a ton of waves only to actually catch a few? Or do you find yourself feeling off-balance and slow while you’re paddling out? A few years back we made a paddle tutorial that may help you to improve your technique. It’s short, sweet, and right to the point!

The video below covers a few tips and techniques that will help you improve on the strength and length of your stroke, as well as your balance and control. It also includes a few things to avoid doing while you’re paddling.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH!

  1. Keep your fingers together and your hands in a scoop shape

  2. Dig your entire arm into the water (up to your armpit)

  3. Paddle in the shape of the Coco Chanel logo and draw big, “C’s” under your surfboard

  4. Keep your sh** tight!

 

For more surf tutorials check out our online surf training platform HERE!

 

Practice Yin Yoga with Reesie: Full Class!

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The spine is the highway connecting the brain to the body and is home to our spiritual centers, the chakras. It has 76 joints and 24 bones. It’s a big deal. Stretching to maintain a well-oiled spine is vital because it helps to keep the body mobile and fluid (and ready to surf).

The spine is a big deal

So, we’re stoked that we have another opportunity to practice Yin Yoga and get our spines movin’ with SWA’s resident yogi-surfer, Reesie! In this class, “…we’ll bend forward then backward then forward then backward and top if off with a twist”.

Grab one block and a few pillows (or a bolster if you have one), then click the video below to dive in!

Donations for Reesie’s online Yin Yoga classes are being accepted at Venmo – @cherise-richards or paypal – [email protected]

Add this Neck Stretch to Your Yoga Routine: Full Class with Reesie

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Feeling neck tension from sitting at your desk all day? Or from a long surf-session? Woke up on the wrong side of the bed? Need a little yoga fix-me-up?

block. neck. magic.

It’s the most requested yoga sequence during most of our retreats, and if you’ve been on a retreat with SWA before, I’m sure you already know exactly what we’re talking about! Its simple. Its magical. It feels so good. Its also pretty difficult to replicate without the guidance of a teacher, so we’re extra stoked that our yoga teacher Reesie just released an 11-minute tutorial video of the infamous, “block neck move”. This stretch-massage duo for the neck has yet to be named, so try it out and let us know if you can come up with a good name for it!

Reesie’s online Yin Yoga classes are open for optional donation. Her info is as follows- Venmo: Cherise-Richards or PayPal: [email protected]
To learn more about Cherise Richards, our head yoga instructor here at SWA,  click here.

We Love Party Waves

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Surf With Amigas Party Waves

If you’re like us, you know that the only thing more fun than riding a wave solo, is to share it with a friend.

If you happen to surf in a crowd regularly, maybe you want to team up with your friends and work on your party waves. Here is a selection of party waves from our surf coaches over the last couple of months to give you some ideas.

Surf Video: Ladies Longboarding in Costa Rica

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Surf With Amigas Costa Rica Longboard

Here are some highlights from our very first retreat fully taking over the Longboard Surf House in Southern Costa Rica for what had planned to be the whole season. We had an awesome group of 12 ladies of all ages from early 20s to 50s! This was the last retreat that we were able to run before the COVID-19 situation closed borders and had us all sheltering in place. It’s awesome to look back on a sunny, surf-filled happy time with friends and dream of the time we’ll be able to enjoy this sort of thing!

Do this Yoga Sequence to Improve Your Duck Dive

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This duck dive-inspired yoga sequence is easy to do at home! Many of the same muscles engaged during a duck dive are also engaged during a simple vinyasa flow.

This simple yoga exercise aims to address three parts of the duck dive:

  1. Core Strength

  2. Arm Strength

  3. Balance

Add this sequence to your daily practice to help commit these duck dive movements into muscle memory, so that once you hit the water to surf your duck dive will feel natural and strong.

 

New SWA Instructor Releases Surf Film

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Surf With Amigas Costa Rica

One of our newest surf instructors, Florida grom Jazmine Dean,  just spent her first season working retreats and adventuring with the Surf With Amigas crew down in Nicaragua and Costa Rica. She created this super rad little surf film and just released it last week! Enjoy the film and a note from Jaz below-

Surf with amigas x Jazmine

Pura Vida!

 

My life changed in the season I spent down here as a first time Surf With Amigas instructor just as much as Amigas often say their lives change during retreats. I’m currently still down in Southern Costa Rica and I’ve spent more consecutive months living here than I have spent living in any other foreign country before. I spend my free days in-between retreats almost the same as I spend my, “work”, days during retreats, and most of my closest friends down here were formed through the connections and roots that SWA has created here in the local community.

This film barely scratches the surface of how this life has reconnected me to my roots as a soul surfer and the good times had. I understand surfing and have for a long time, but these retreats are just as much about personal growth as they are about surfing a wave, and for that, I thank the guests, our Amigas, so much.

I’m most grateful of all for the women I’ve met through the retreats and I took a little from each person I spent time with. It’s possible that some of you reading this were on some of the retreats I worked at and maybe even appear in a scene or two! Anyways, please enjoy the film and thanks for watching.

Pura Vida,

-Jazmine

A Day in the Life During Shelter In Place with SWA

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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, surf with amigas, Costa Rica

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, Surf With Amigas, Costa RicaHolly 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, surf with amigas, vlog, NicaraguaChloe 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! 

Learn About High Performance Twin Fin Surfboards with Holly Beck

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Up until recently I would have told you that I don’t really like twin fins. Any time I’d ever tried a “fish”, it was fun, but just not as high performance as I wanted a board to feel. Sure, they paddled well and went fast down the line. They were also very loose. So loose, that if I wanted to do a quick bottom turn and hard “off the top” turn, the board would just slide out on me. I felt like I always had to hold back and surf more conservatively.

Of course, time passes and my pro surfing career is now 10 years in the past. I, along with my surfing, have matured and my prime focus isn’t quite as much about smashing the lip as enjoying the feel of the ride, including riding a variety of different surfboards. Lately I pulled an old twin fin out of the back of my quiver that I’d owned for 20 years but never really liked much. It’s not quite as wide as a Lis “fish” (for what that means see below), but still qualifies as a fish. I found that relying on more front foot pressure to control the rail made it more surf-able and actually fun, even in hollow waves. See video below.

Around the same time I’d been surfing a bigger hollow high performance sandbar wave in Nicaragua and there was a French pro out absolutely ripping. He looked to be riding something alternative and I asked him, “what are you riding?” It turned out to be a “Plan B” by Pukas – a round tail, narrower twin fin. I immediately sent the link to my shaper in Costa Rica – Randy Walker – and asked him to make me one. He did some of his own research, tweaked it a bit, and the result is the board I’m riding in the first video. It has become my favorite board to ride. Even though I had ordered it with the hollow beach breaks of Nicaragua in mind, it seems to also work really well in the long sloping walls of Pavones near our retreats in southern Costa Rica .

If you’re interested in what it means for a surfboard to be a “fish” and the differences between a traditional fish and the modern version, keep reading!

The Original Fish Design

You of course will have heard of a “fish”. This board was designed by San Diegan surfer/shaper Steve Lis in 1967. It was originally designed as a kneeboard, but began to be surfed standing up. The standard features are a shorter length, wider tail, and two fins set wide apart (compared to a standard shortboard). These boards paddle well and feel very fast and loose. They have to be ridden a little differently than a high performance shortboard because if you push on the tail hard, you’ll likely slide out. Here’s a video snippet from the film “Hydrodynamica” showing the fish in use. Click here for Vimeo video.

The MR Fish

Then along came Mark Richards. He wanted a board that would be a hybrid of a single fin and a fish. During the 1976/77 Hawaii season, he redesigned the fish, creating a board with a narrower tail and the two fins closer together, then went on to win a world title on it. Of course in 1980 the three-fin “thruster” design came along as an even better options, and twin fins were relegated to shadows until the hipster movement brought them back into the spotlight.

Here’s a full 15 min documentary on Mark Richards and original high performance twin fin: