Tag: yoga teacher

Staff Summer Vacation- Nikki Belcher

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screen-shot-2016-10-06-at-11-23-09-amAs our off-season comes to a close, I have been reveling in the restoration that this summer brought. Over the last five years of living in Nicaragua, my lifestyle has been very fluid, on-the-go and in many ways, seeking the next adventure. This year, however, has truly been about holding home and nourishing through quality time with family, cultivating a morning meditation practice and studying various natural health modalities.

After wrapping up our summer retreats, I spent two weeks in my hometown of Chicago. With a little one now in tow, time with friends and family is cherished in a whole new way.  To see the joy that comes through my Grandparents in having a great-grandchild is heartwarming. The awe in my parents and sibling’s eyes in being able to share new experiences and create memories with Naia is a blessing that I appreciate far more knowing that our time during our stay is limited. A few of my friends are also new mamas and soon-to-be mamas so to gather together with the next generation of friends and share moments reminiscing about the good-ol-days while simultaneously feeling the richness of where we are now continues to shape and enhance my perspective of our current realities.  

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Jamie’s parents also came to visit and being that it was his mom’s first time in Chicago, we explored the city on an architecture boat tour  – which really opened my eyes to the beauty and history of my old stomping grounds.

During our trip, Jamie and I even had the pleasure of enjoying our very first over-night date night (partyyyyy!!). While we didn’t get as wild as we imagined, we saw Wilco at an outdoor venue in downtown Chicago, stayed at a fancy hotel and indulged in what every good Chicagoan loves, hearty food! Now, if you have been to El Coco Loco before, you may already know that I am very passionate about food and that I generally consider myself a ‘pescatarian’. However, when we were recommended the restaurant, The Purple Pig, I simply could not resist! The restaurant offers cheese, swine and wine, showcasing the flavors of Italy, Greece and Spain.  Before I get carried away in the deliciousness of the night, I will stop there. But seriously, it was divine and if you are ever in Chicago, I highly recommend this dining hotspot!

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Once we returned to Nicaragua, El Coco Loco finished up their last group of the season and we closed for 4 weeks. During that time, we revamped all of the cabanas, built a new kitchen, spiced up our restaurant/bar area, planted new trees and flowers around the property and the biggest news of all – bought a new house that will soon provide our guests with beach front, luxury accommodation options.

Over the course of the last month and a half, I have been soaking up the quiet time. While I feel very lucky to have an amazing staff who most often cook our fresh and healthy meals, it has been a treat to channel my inner homemaker – playing with new recipes in my own kitchen and brewing up batches of kombucha and fresh nut milks – all while battling one ant colony (ah, the joys of outdoor living) at a time!

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I have also been diving deep into my personal practices and studies of yoga, meditation, integrative nutrition and holistic health through essential oils. I am currently feeling very inspired, refreshed and looking forward to sharing all the goodness with all of the awesome Amigas very soon!

3 Yoga Postures to Strengthen Your Core

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There are so many parallels between yoga and surfing. The skills you learn and practice on the yoga mat translate to the surfboard across so many different levels. Through this next series of blogs we will start uncovering some of these parallels.

Today, our focus is on the core. The practice of yoga is super beneficial in stabilizing and strengthening the body’s core. The core extends far beyond the muscles of the abs, and having a strong core protects our spine and reduces our risk of injury. A stabilized core allows us to move with strength and speed in a safe and effective way. Having a strong core can also help our balance, which is a huge benefit for surfing.

A strong and stabilized core increases your chances of having an quick pop-up and a successful ride.

Here are 3 yoga postures you can practice to strengthen your core and improve your pop up speed and balance on the surf board:

Bridge Posture: Setu Bandha Sarvangasana

Bridge

Step 1: Lay supine on floor. Feet hip width apart so that you can graze your heels with your fingertips.

Step 2: Press feet and arms into the floor. Inhale and lift hips, firming the buttocks but not over squeezing. Lift buttocks until thighs are almost parallel to earth. Stack your knees over your heels. Engage your inner thighs muscles to keep the thighs and knees drawing towards each other maintaining hip width distance apart. Press into the feet to lift hips more, engaging the inner thigh muscles more to relax the buttock slightly.

Step 3: Lengthen sternum towards chin, chin slightly lifted from sternum. Walk one shoulder blade underneath the body at a time, interlock fingers and press hands into the earth. Open across the chest as you feel the length in the back of the neck.

Surf Specific Benefits: This one is not an obvious core strengthener but specific to surfing the benefits are huge! You are opening the chest and counteracting all of that forward rotation in the pectoral muscles from paddling. At the same time lengthening and strengthening your spine and opening the hip flexors (great for a fast pop up), while strengthening the glutes!!! This is a strengthening and healing posture when it comes to our surf specific muscles. Highly recommended!

* Hold for up to 30 seconds maintaining steady breath in and out through the nose.

Side Plank Posture: Vasisthasana

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Step 1: From Downward Dog or Forward Plank shift onto the knife edge of the right foot. Bring the left hand onto the left hip and stack the right wrist slightly in front of the right shoulder. Root the right hand into the earth pressing through every knuckle mound to ease pressure on the wrist. Step the left foot back to meet the right, stacking the feet.

*If stacking the feet is too extreme, you can step the left foot to the centre line of the body, with the knee bent and the foot on the ground as kick stand.

Step 2: Open your hips, chest and gaze to the left side, extend the left arm to the sky. Gaze straightforward or gaze up towards the left hand.

Step 3: Hold with hips lifted, breathing steady. To increase intensity lift the left leg towards the sky. You can hold static or pulse. If pulsing, inhale to lift the left leg and exhale to slowly lower left leg until it hovers above the right. Move slowly with precision and control.

* Hold for 30 seconds. Rest. Take a forward facing plank for 30 seconds. Switch sides. Repeat 2 or 3 times on each side! Between each side take 30 seconds in forward plank.

Surf Specific Benefits: Strengthens the abdominals, the hips and improve overall sense of balance!
Baby Cobra: Bhujangasana

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Step 1: Lay on your belly. Press the tops of your feet into the earth. Engage your thighs and feel your tailbone lengthening down towards the heels. Press your feet, thighs into the earth. Engaging the glutes and feeling the continued length from the tailbone towards the heels.

Step 2: Hands on the floor, stretch fingertips wide and root every knuckle mound into the earth. Hands underneath shoulders. Elbows close to the body. (Like grasshopper legs)!

Step 3: Use an inhale breath to slowly press into the palms, lifting the chest. Maintain firm contact with the lower body into the ground, feeling the spine long and tailbone lengthening towards heels as the chest lifts. Shoulders firming into the back body. In this baby cobra variation take a mini lift, gazing forward. (You are so lifted and engaged through the legs and core that you can hover your hands off of the mat for a moment).

* Hold for 15-30 seconds with steady breath through the nose. Slowly release. Repeat 2- 3 times and then take Child’s Posture.

Surf Specific Benefits: Strengthens the spine, abdominals and buttocks while opening through the chest and shoulders. This posture preps the body for a strong and stable paddling position and a solid foundation to start your pop-up from.

Remember to breathe through all of these postures using nose breathing. If you are not sure about your alignment head to a studio and ask your local yoga teacher some questions or come on a retreat and we will help you out!! Ultimately, the goal of these postures is gain some strength while creating opening. There is no need to push, force or achieve anything through these postures. Modifications are always available. Have a beautiful Tuesday and practice, practice, practice!

Meet SWA Yoga Teacher Carly

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Surf With Amigas is lucky to have several awesome yoga teachers on staff to keep you loose, relaxed, rejuvenated, and inspired between surf sessions. We are pleased to introduce Carly Chivers who will be attending many of our retreats outside of Northern Nicaragua. She’s a great surfer so she knows just how to stretch out tired paddling muscles and get you energized for your next session.

13 Year Old Miely Shreds with Amigas

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During a recent family-friendly retreat we had 13 year old Miely join us with her filmmaker dad, Ananda. Meily loves yoga and is currently training to be one of the youngest certified yoga teachers ever! She is from San Diego and surfs regularly, but really stepped it up in Nica during the retreat and scored some awesome rides.

thanks for the video! sproutproductions.com  a-nanda.com

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Waterfall Yoga with Nikki

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We are so blessed to have Nikki Belcher as our yoga teacher at Surf With Amigas. She is gorgeous inside and out, has a calming, healing presence, and inspires a restorative practice. There was so much prana/energy at the waterfall in the cloud forest that Nikki decided to do a little free flow sequence.

Meet Amigas Yoga Teacher Nikki

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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.

Jessica Bellofatto – Yoga Teacher for October Retreats in El Salvador

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Jessica came on a retreat to Northern Nicaragua in January and had an amazing time. She was really fun to hang out with, was shredding in the water, and happened to let me know that she has been teaching yoga for over 20 years! When she emailed about possibly coming to El Salvador in October I suggested she come as our yoga teacher. She is so stoked to join us! See below for more about Jessica…

Jessica Bellofatto, Founder and Director of KamaDeva Yoga in East Hampton, New York, is best known for her easy laughter, radiant energy, and matchless knowledge of the body. A mother, yogini, doula, surfer, triathlete, and avid stand up paddleboarder (and now SUP racer), Jessica has inspired thousands of students in their journey to better understand themselves and their world. She uses movement as play, movement as therapy, and most importantly, views movement in general and the asana practice specifically as a spiritual practice done to benefit all beings.

Featured in The New York Times, Time Out New York, The New York Post, New York Magazine, Hamptons Magazine, Well and Good and many more, Jessica, deeply steeped in her Jivamukti roots, opened KamaDeva Yoga in April of 2009, and leads sold-out yoga retreats worldwide. In 2011, Jessica was chosen amongst over 400 other applicants to be one of Athleta’s Featured Athletes and writes regularly for the ATHLETA CHI BLOG, and other periodicals. She was also recently chosen as an ambassador for the BOGA YOGA paddleboard, a board specifically designed for yoga on the water.

She has studied extensively with many of yoga’s most famous names, including John Friend, Richard Freeman, Angela Farmer and Victor Van Kooten, Tim Miller, and many senior teachers at the Iyengar Institute in NYC. In addition to her study of asana, Jessica has studied Yoga philosophy and Sanskrit with Manorama (Thea D’Alvia), Tibetan Buddhism in the Gelukpa lineage with James Conner and Dr. Lisette Garcia, Geshe Michael Roach and Lama Christie McNally, and most recently the Handel Method of Life Coaching. First and foremost a student, Jessica is receptive and curious about various methods of healing and transformation as a means to discover the Self.

Come practice yoga with Jessica in El Salvador October 13-20 and 21-28!

Cyd Gurvich Does Yoga and Shreds in El Salvador

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Cyd Gurvich is from Vancouver, Canada. She spent the season in Nicaragua with Suave Dulce, scoring super fun waves and teaching yoga.  Her surfing improved so much and the last two weeks in El Salvador she took it to a whole new level, doing cutbacks and sneaking into some little tubes. If you’re in Canada and want to do yoga with an awesome teacher who also surfs, check out her website: Sukhaline

Learn to Do a Handstand Safely

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Handstands are cool. I learned to do a handstand the old-fashioned way – by putting both hands in the sand and then kicking my feet over my head. Practice, practice, practice, and now I can do a decent handstand.

While that method does work, it’s probably not the safest and might not even be the most effective. Luckily, I got to hang out with a yoga teacher named Kimberly Waugh at Coco Loco who offered to teach me a fun, safe way to practice handstands.
Check out the video above!