Tag: yoga

Beany’s Animal Shelter Story: Falling in Love with Stray Cats and Dogs in Morocco

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In this story you’ll take a trip to a village in Morocco alongside SWA coach Emma and join her as she falls in love with Moroccan strays and connects with a local animal shelter in an effort to help.

Here’s Emma’s story:

I landed in Morocco mid-September, bright eyed and bushy tailed, ready for the start of another season with Surf With Amigas. I was greeted by couscous, a cornucopia of color and an astonishing amount of furry, four-legged friends. Reesie, Chloe and I spent 3 days in Marrakech where we learned cats were king, residents of every street corner and territorial savages when tajine scraps were on the line. 

From Marrakech we moved south to Imsouane, a village north of Agadir where we hold the SWA retreats. Waters once dominated by fishermen have transformed into Moroccan Malibu, with European tourists and soft tops flying about in the fog. 

Marrakech is to cats as Imsouane is to dogs (and some cats). That first morning in the few days before the start of the retreat we stayed at a cute hotel further down the cliff from the SWA retreat villa. Feeling underdressed and too awkward to make conversation with the European hipsters that make boho look elegant, I went to play with one of the stray pups rolling around in the dirt out front.

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Q&A with Holly Beck: From Pro Surfer to Surf Therapy Intern

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After a career as a professional surfer, SWA Founder Holly Beck ran off to Central America to find herself. She built Surf With Amigas (and a family) over the course of 11 years living between Costa Rica and Nicaragua. In 2021 she decided to move back to calling California home base.

The ocean was always a place holly went to escape and find healing.

Now, she’s pursuing a Master’s in Counseling on the path to become a licensed surf therapist. She’s interning with Groundswell Community Project and partnered with Jess Ripley to create and lead surf therapy programs in Southern California.

Q + A with Holly

Q: What do you hope to accomplish in working with women in the world of holistic surf coaching?

A: After spending the last 12 years involved in surf coaching, i’ve realized that beyond the physical tips like looking down the line, putting more weight on the front foot, and all the other common bits of coaching advice that i’m typically giving Amigas, there is often a mental component as well. Whether it’s the un-helpful voice of our inner-critic, a fear of bigger waves, anxiety about getting in someone’s way, etc., there’s a lot going on in our heads that affects our surfing performance. I’ve been really interested in exploring that internal stuff both in my own life and then also adding it to a coaching program to create a more holistic approach to surf coaching that would be even more effective in the water, but also spill over into benefits to someone’s personal life as well.

Q: You’ve made a few big career changes in the past year. Looking forward, what are you most excited about?

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Get Fit For SURF: 10-Minute Ab Workout with Reesie

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It’s always nice to mix things up a bit. We know you’ve all been loving Reesie’s online Yin Yoga classes, but this week she’s given us something different! This easy-to-follow, 10-minute ab video targets the core and warms up the abs just right. As a long-time yogi and surfer, Reesie knows just what movements every surfer needs to maintain the perfect balance of strong and flexible. All of us have been so grateful for these online classes that have kept us centered, strong, and in tune with our bodies during the pandemic!

Our advice? Pair this quick ab workout with Reesie’s Yang Yoga class or tag it onto to other short workouts that you love!

As always, donations for Reesie’s online classes are gratefully accepted at Venmo- @Cherise-Richards or PayPal at [email protected]

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.

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.

 

Practice Yin Yoga with Reesie

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Surf With Amigas Yoga

Yin Yoga for the Hips

Unwind with another virtual Yin Yoga class brought to you by SWA instructor Reesie and her adorable lil’ pup Ruban. Although we can’t practice Yin Yoga in the jungle with all of you as usual right now, we’re stoked to have access to the next best thing… which is Reesie’s donation-based Yin class right at home! Good music playlist and all. This hour-long Yin style class is centered around the hips.

Reesie is accepting donations for her classes through Venmo (@cherise-Richards) or PayPal ([email protected]) but in her own words, “…if you can’t, dude I get it. Either way, hope this feels good!”.

If you missed Reesie’s most recent shoulder class, you can find it here. Enjoy!

 

 

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

Books to Inspire Your Next Surf Adventure

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Need some new reads to get hyped for your next surf adventure? SWA Instructor Coco has shared her favorite surf-centric books!

 

In Search Of Captain Zero

a surfer’s  road trip beyond the end of the road

By Allan C. Weisbecker

My favorite surf book ever. This book really captures the essence of surf travel and it opened up my mind to the wild magic of Mexico. 

On his journey from New York to Central America in search of a long lost friend, Allan finds himself in some wild places, surfing empty waves and gathering clues of his dear friend Captain Zero’s whereabouts along the way. This book is hilarious and entertaining from beginning to end and it really inspired me. I still dream of driving through Mexico and Central America! Maybe one day. As far as I know Captain Zero is still living there in Mexico- my sister ran into him a few years ago in Panama and they surfed together.

Bustin’ Down the Door

By Wayne RABBIT Bartholomew

I read this book while living in Hawaii. The author, “Rabbit”, is an Australian surf legend who writes about his adventures in Hawaii in the winter of 1975 where he was almost chased out, first by locals, then by huge waves crashing through his front door in the night.

After reading this book I moved to Australia and eventually met Rabbit at Southern Cross University where I was studying Sports Management “surfing studies”. I remember during his open discussion he asked the students if we could leave our desks and sit in a circle on the floor instead. Legend indeed.

Barbarian Days A Surfing Life

By William Finnegan

“The particulars of new places grabbed me and held me, the sweep of new coasts, cold, lovely, dawns. The world was incomprehensibly large, and there was still so much to see. Yes, I got sick sometimes of being an expatriate, always ignorant, on the outside of things, but I didn’t feel ready for domestic life, for seeing the same people, the same places, thinking more or less the same thoughts, each day. I liked surrendering to the onrush, the uncertainty, the serendipity of the road.” — Finnegan

This quote taken from Barbarian Days really sums up the excitement of surf travel. Never knowing what is around the next corner, traveling to new places, exposing yourself to new cultures, and embracing the unexpected. I read it in a just a few days! After reading I starting thinking about surfing bigger waves and began training a few weeks later too!

Feeding Monkeys and Catching Awesome Waves in Costa Rica

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surf with amigas, instructors, all women, surf camp, learn to surf, surf coaching

On a retreat in Costa Rica in June, the group scored some big waves, and had awesome interaction with nature. Hand feeding monkeys, incredible caterpillars, and awesome beach moments. Surf with Amigas all women surf yoga adventure retreats in Costa Rica are the best!

We are getting down to the very end of our rainy season retreat series in Costa Rica with just one more retreat starting up today. This location is amazing! Check out the video above from a retreat in June that was just uploaded and let us know if you’d like to join us in the fall when we start up again! November retreats are already sold out but we do have some space in December and beyond!