CSC x Barbados

Greetings sea lovers! Posting today from Rancho Diandrew at our second retreat here in 2017. Just before this we did our first ever mini retreat to the south coast of Barbados. This trip came about because CSC mentee Jo Becker had vacation days at work that she needed to spend or lose. She told me she could do a trip on her own but would prefer to do a CSC thing if others were interested. I sent out a few texts. The erratic east coast winter had people frothing to go somewhere warm and consistent and we had a crew together in a matter of hours. I scouted locations and Barbados came up gold for price of plane tickets and odds on scoring surf. And score we did.

The full crew was Jo Becker, Mariza Daras, Ali Malipica, Catee Lalonde, Kim Corchia, Christina Nizar, Juan Heredia and me. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon, got straight to Zed's — an excellent lodging and surf complex in Inch Marlow — got the crew situated in their apartments, loaded boards on the rental cars, and then we headed to a local left hand reef break that's sheltered from the NE trade winds. It was chest to head high and rifling down the reef. All the ladies got a few fun ones before dark. We sketchily drove the right hand side drive cars back to our pads, showered, and ate an excellent meal at Surfer's Bar, on recommendation from Claudia, Zed's wife and all around awesome guide and coordinator of all things Barbados. 

Screen grab of CSC instructor Juan Heredia showing proper form for bursting into the next section: hands down, keens bent, eyes down the line. Pic: Dion Mattison 

The next morning Juan and I had an instructor dawn patrol scout mission to a wave called South Point. It was high tide and a little wonky but there was a double rainbow and some fun surf. I shot Juan with the GoPro. Then we all had a nice breakfast together before surfing our brains out the remainder of the day. The next three days were not exact carbon copies but they followed the same mold: wake up, eat breakfast, do a bit of video review and on land coaching, then hit the surf. As you can see in the video, everyone made huge improvements to their surfing. We worked on the high/low alternation for speed generation, the backside rail grab in the critical section, catching waves in the power source, finding alternate peaks away from the crowd, and setting the foundation for solid bottom turn/high line combinations (essentially an outgrowth of the high/low alternation). As always, we were diligent about improving paddling technique and form because it is the key to solid surfing. 

Mariza Daras demonstrates how turn turn your head and shoulders down the line to make the section. Pic: Dion Mattison

All in all Barbados was a total success. The people at Zed's were incredibly accommodating. They let us swap out boards daily. We focused on finding the optimal board for each surfer and for the women to feel the difference in different fin set ups, outlines, lengths, materials, and rocker contours. The favorite board of the trip, however, was the trusty Joe Falcone 7'10" "Dad Board" that Juan and I brought down with us. Juan and I only got to ride that board once before the women had it on lock down. Glad we brought it! Juan and I also brought a 6'4" alaia shaped by Bryan Döring, and a 5'7" asymmetrical board also shaped by Joe. It was a well rounded quiver and fortunately Jet Blue did not charge us for the board bag on the flight home! 

Catee Lalonde great style in the pocket on the Joe Falcone 7'10". Pic: Dion Mattison

In summary, Barbados is going on the roster. We hear there are waves there year round. The water is too beautiful, the people too nice, and the food too good not to!!! We are also planning another LA retreat, and a few more special trips for the spring, summer, and fall. As I wrote in the previous post, these mini retreats are the best way to fast track your surfing. Of course we're still doing private lessons on the east coast (NY/NJ/MA) all spring and into the summer. So whichever you're interested in, shoot us an email and stay tuned for more posts!

More waves more joy!!!!  

Homeland Stroll CSC x CA

There has been a lot of moving and shaking in Conatus land. A poor winter of surf has created a thrust for us to explore different locations for intensive mini surf retreats. These trips allow us to help CSC mentees reach new levels in their practice in a brief amount of time. We did this one to the SF/Monterey Bay area at the end of February to get in some quality surfing with Paul Saliba. Paul has been with us since September 2015. He is still in the infancy of his practice, but is putting in the hard work. We are going to continue working on relaxing his style, successfully navigating crowded lineups, gaining confidence exploring new breaks, and staying close to the power source of the wave.

Paul recently moved back to his, and as it turns out, our homeland in January. This stretch of coastline is very dear to my heart. When Andrew and my parents divorced in 1985 our mom, Jory, moved up to Sausalito from where we were living in Moss Landing. This resulted in many many weekend drives throughout our youth. Then when I went to college at UC Berkeley from 2000-2005 I did strike missions before class to any number of the breaks pictured in this video. I will not reveal names of any spots. As you can see there are plenty of empty waves, and also many that are so crowded you pretty much have to expect to ride a wave with others or accept the scraps. Paul and I tread very lightly and did not directly challenge local hierarchies and we obeyed their rules of etiquette: do not jock people at the peak, stay inside and out of the way and when you see your opportunity, seize it, give local surfers the right of way, look for spots and peaks where no one is surfing, and stay positive and smiling in the crowded lineups. We were greeted with smiles and acknowledgement that our strategy was working, and we also happened to score some epic surf. The swell pumped the whole time we were there.

Other highlights of the trip included linking up with my old surfing homies. English professor and speed surfing guru, Jon Kitamura, lent me his 5'9" Pavel surfboards quad fin. I saw Lewis Samuels and Marcus Sanders in the OB parking lot. We had a joke about making a Short Man's Surfing Club for all guys under 5'7". Met up with photographer Paul Ferraris for a surf in Pacifica. Paul's work is spectacular. Another surf friend we ran into is Julie Cox, who has opened a new shop in Pacifica called Traveler. What an awesome shop!!! They have a full surf and swim club locker, shower, and lounge right on the beach, with a heated bench to boot. Great products — I snagged hat for me and a pair of earrings for Sophia. The whole place has a very warm vibe created by a combination of intentional aesthetic choices and an effort to promote conscious and local artisans. Last, we got to surf with two of my all time favorite surfers, Andrew Dolan and Shea Hodges. Shea is not in the video, but she is one of the best vertical small wave surfers I have ever met or surfed with. Andrew is the stringy smooth fellow in the last part of the video. He and I grew up surfing together, frothing on Derek Hynd and Tom Curren parts in surf videos, and generally surfing our brains out as much as humanly possible. Andrew has one of the best styles in the game, likes big tubes, and can lay the board on a rail in his sleep. As Conatus instruction expands, I hope to integrate people like this into the team of gurus. Stay tuned for more info on that, and also be on the look out for another post in the next week about our very recent trip to Barbados. 

More waves more joy everyone! 

-Dion 

Summer Is Here! Updates/Summer Wetsuit Review/And More!

Water bound humans of New York! Summer season has officially started. This means small waves, the occasional hurricane or tropical storm pulse, restricted beaches, traffic, warm weather and water, and tons of fun navigating the urban surfing jungle. Long Beach has the same deal this year as last year: Pacific, Lincoln, and one rotating beach that changes according to this schedule. It's $15 a person to get on the beach past 9a, but if you surf with us we have passes for you. Of course if you surf before 9a then you don't have to worry about it. The surfing beaches at Rockaway this year are 61-69 and 87-92. All other beaches are "closed" for surfers from 10a-6p. Usually the lifeguards will open the beaches to us if the swell is big enough/too dangerous for swimmers, but otherwise if you surf at a non surfing beach past 10a this summer expect a hassle with the authorities. Cramming us all together presents a variety of ethical dilemmas so we all need to practice patience with one another. We must also work to communicate with NYC parks and gov't to change the outdated surfing beach schedule in the future.   

The water is now in the low 60s, which is fine for a 3/2mm full suit (no gloves, no booties, no hood). For the perfect summer wetsuit quiver I recommend a 3/2mm fullsuit, a 2mm long or short sleeve spring suit (your choice depending on tan line preferences), and a 2mm jacket to be worn with boardshorts or a bathing suit. Any combination of these suits should get you through October, and after that you will need to invest in a 4/3mm full suit with a hood. 

Recenty, like many surfers, I was targeted by a company called Need Essentials through Facebook ads. They claim to have paired down the whole process and branding of making a wetsuit to bring the average surfer a top of the line suit at a fraction of cost. I went to their store and my jaw dropped. The 3/2mm is $150 and includes tax and shipping. Winter suits are around $200. This is literally half to 1/3 the price of all other suits. I had to try them out so I bought a standard 3/2mm. It came a week ago and I have used it twice now. I am thoroughly impressed. Sturdier zipper than on my Ripcurl and Quiksilver suits. Same great kevlar kneepads. Fully taped seams. Water wicks off the outer layer. Unfortunately, for the ladies, NE only makes mens suits (for now). If you have narrower hips, however, the suits should fit and are not overtly masculine or feminine -- they're basically just plain black surfing leotards. I cannot speak to the manufacturing practices or the eco footprint of the NE suits. That bit is not yet transparent on their site. More research forthcoming. If you want to be involved with the eco movement Patagonia is developing a more earth-friendly neoprene called Yulex/Nexkin, but it is pricey (5x the cost of an NE suit). If you are looking for logos and color, however, neither Patagonia nor NE are your jam. All of the mainstream brands -- Ripcurl, Quiksilver, Oneill, Billabong, Xcel, Matuse, and Hurley --  have different aesthetics and use different colorways. They also allow you to feel a kinship with the professional surfing elite. In addition, there are plenty of new wetsuit companies cropping up everywhere like Vissla, Adelio, Isurus, Janga, etc. 

Speaking of new wetsuit companies, an exciting one for women is professional surfer, Kassia Meador's, new venture, Kassia+Surf. They are a bit more fashion forward and pricey but seem to be made with vision and integrity. A perennial favorite is Nineplus. They have a variety of long arm short leg styles with a functional retro vibe. And again, all of the major brands have their own styles, colorways, and prices. The same suit rule applies for women as it does for men: a 3/2mm full suit for those crispy morning or uncanny upwelling surfs and a 2mm long sleeve spring suit will last you through October.

For those that have been following our progress, you may notice a few changes to the site. We have updated the look, the store, and and some of our other pages. We are working towards getting the store fully functional and t shirts and hats will also be on offer at some point this summer. Currently, the most important change is to our packages on our Lessons page. There are new prices for weekends and weekdays and we've added a 10 lesson package for those that realize the value of quality instruction. I will post about important changes when they occur. Stay tuned for tons of good stuff! 

CSC + RDA March Retreat Recap

Ocean lovers! 

I have been back from Costa Rica going on 72 hours now and am still replaying all of the amazing rides and meals and waterfall jumps in my head. The second inaugural CSC + RDA surf retreat was a total smash hit. We were blessed with plentiful swell and gorgeous weather. We stayed on the video and everyone saw dramatic improvement. After this retreat I feel now, more than ever, that hiring a coach is the only way to fast track your surfing. All the pros have them, why not people who are just starting out? Some of the people on this retreat have only been surfing since August and October 2015 and are now dropping into overhead (for them) waves with style. It's truly impressive. Below is a highlight reel followed by a few more words: 

There are many highlights in this video, but I have to say that Beni's wave at Pavones — the long left pictured in the screen saver — is one of the best waves I have ever seen a beginning/intermediate surfer ride. Working with back siders, it is imperative to make sure that head and shoulders are turned down the line and opened up to the wave face. The grab rail technique is not always necessary but it is a good skill to have in one's arsenal to help manage the drop and pull the rail into the water. There's a nice close up of Beni using this technique in the GoPro footage of the wave we shared at a secret spot near the Rancho towards the end of the video. That wave is hilarious because she kept looking back at me and I had to keep pointing to the shoulder so that she would turn her head to make the wave. I must admit that I cannot take full credit for Beni's success. She has a naturally quick pop up that she has honed at a variety of surf camps and schools around the world. This is simply more to the point that new surfers who seek out instruction improve more quickly than those that don't. 

I like to think, however, that starting with a technique like ours gives one an even faster advantage than the other techniques. Helena, Mariza, and Christina are all perfect examples. Helena has been surfing with me since August and Mariza since October 2015; and Christina only started during the first retreat in January 2016. Both Mariza and Helena are taking off at the peak and managing really tricky drops with style. In one day Christina went from a labored pop up with a little too much bend at the waist to a fast pop up with the weight shifted back over her right foot. Beyond particulars, all these women absolutely charged. The waves were not small during this retreat and everyone came to the table ready to play. Unfortunately Mariza and Christina had to leave this trip early before we got all the insane left handers, which is why we only see Beni and Helena towards the end of the video. 

The other people in the video, Bryan and Juan, were there to help Andrew and I out with camp particulars and lineup safety. Juan is a very competent bodyboarder from Puerto Rico who has also been learning to surf since working with Andrew. He in fact got the best stand up wave of his life on this trip and was invaluable when it came to preparing meals and logging footage. Bryan has been surfing for 5+ years. He is one of the heads of the NY Surfing Buddies meetup group and is a general good vibing frother who has has gotten into shaping his own alaia surfboards with the help of Jon Wegener. I was particularly glad Bry brought the alaia because I got some of my best waves of the trip on it. I put one particularly long one in the video. The alaia is all about picking the right wave and being in position. It takes so much energy to swim that piece of wood around a lineup, so you don't want to kill yourself going for bad waves. I saw Bry have some particularly masochistic alaia sessions where he went for a lot of closeouts or sectioning waves. He has seen the video and knows that he needs to work on patience. The upside to Bryan's impatience is that he is just so stoked to surf. Beyond his surfing stoke, Bryan brought a lighthearted presence to the retreat and made some of the best and most creative margaritas any of us have ever had. He also did some really valuable filming and commentary for our spoof reel. 

Moving towards heavy video review has made a huge difference both in my teaching style and in the students' improvement. We did not miss one wave on video all trip and people could take what they were seeing — the good, the bad, and the ugly — and improve upon it the next day. Plus we got really good at improv commentary which made the nightly video reviews as entertaining as they were educational. A spoof Youtube channel or Instagram may result . . . . 

I know that in this age of internet ADD I am supposed to only provide videos that are 3 minutes and under, but we got so much good footage that 7 min 30 secs was the best I could do on this one. The waves we scored were so long and I wanted to highlight that our crew were getting 30 sec plus rides. You put five of those on a video and that's 2.5 minutes long already with none of the fun lifestyle stuff, which I think adds so much flavor and depth to what we do down there. I cannot express in words how great it feels to swim in a cool freshwater waterfall pool after surfing all day. Definitely a top 5 life experience. 

We're in the early phases of planning our future retreats for 2016 and 2017. Until the dates are up, please feel free to email about Conatus-style lessons and mini retreats in Costa Rica. Andrew is down there and he has all the skills and video equipment necessary to help out 1-3 people at a time. We are also gearing up for the New York season, which is soon to be upon us. I am starting to book up for when the water gets warmer, so make sure you get on the schedule asap. I'm also solidifying some great plans for CSC mini excursions to RI, LI, and NJ for the summer. And don't forget that Chris is out in Montauk if you need lessons out there. 

I am really stoked that CSC is growing organically and finding its niche in the flourishing surf community. For those that have believed in us and continue to, I thank you with all of my heart. Hopefully we'll see you in New York or Costa Rica soon! 

Mini Missions and Vids

What a great first two weeks of November! Conditions have been tricky to nail down, but there have been at least 1-3 quality windows for surf every week. I recently ran two off the cuff surgical strike missions with my current roster of students who have purchased packages. Both times we scored empty waves for hours and they were huge successes overall. The first trip was to Asbury Park followed by lunch and a second surf in Long Beach. Both times we found a peak with no one on it and scored it all to ourselves. The second was a one day trip to Montauk where we went into full search mode, settled on a fun little beach break (again, no one out), ate steaming cups of clam chowder on the side of the road, and then traveled back to New York. I dropped everyone off at the subway stops I picked them up at (the Franklin 2/3/4/5 and the Bedford/Nostrand G) and went home and started editing video. 

In between these two extremely rad mini surf trips we had a great day of surf in Long Beach. That was Wednesday this week. One of my most dedicated acolytes, Beccy, got in a lesson in the morning before heading to work. I picked her up at the LIRR in LB at 6:22a and dropped her off at 8:30a. She charged hard and I managed to get her best waves on video. In a relatively short amount of time, Beccy has come a really long way with wave judgment and timing and overall surfing ability. After I dropped her off at the train I went back to the beach to try to get a few clips of the super smooth surfing of my friends Gus and Bennet, who were also getting in a session before they had to run off to their work life obligations. This I did and then I got so excited by their surfing that I had to paddle out again. My friends Bryan and Kyungmi joined in for the second surf and JP was also there. We took a short break in the middle of the day. I downloaded footage onto my computer and ate some bananas. Then we went for our third and final surf. The waves were still glassy and clean. We were joined by my great friend, Juan, who proceeded to shred it up all over. 

These little surf missions, along with more video, are definitely the direction that CSC is headed (along with lots of other cool stuff to be sure). In fact, this is a good example of how I plan for the Costa Rica camps to play out except that there will be a bit less driving and the water will be a lot warmer! There are still plenty of spots for the January camps, and I would like to get them booked asap. If you want to be cruising down the line by the time summer rolls around you need to get involved with these!  

And to cap off this post I'm going to leave you with two little edits that I have recently completed. The first is a compilation of the past two weeks, excepting the Montauk trip. It features JP, Beccy, Mariza, Paul, Bennet, Gus, Bryan, and Juan. The second was taken on a clean day the last week in October and features JP, husband and wife super team Maiko and Shigeru, and a local Long Beach guy named Justin. 

Inaugural CSC + RDA Costa Rica Winter Surf Retreats

At long last I am happy to announce that we're live for the surf retreats in SW Costa Rica this winter! The retreats will be held at me and my brother's property, Rancho Diandrew, which is situated up a quiet jungle mountainside above the village of Uvita, near the geographical wonder that is the Whale's Tail (Bahia Ballena). We tested out a mock retreat last March and I was pleased to find that we are able to access so many different kinds of waves in a 10 minute to 2 hour car drive from base. We were joined by eternal grommet, Bryan Doring, who features in the video below (red shorts/yellow board). Note the difference between his wave at Achote pre coaching and then his wave at Matapalo post coaching. Bryan was able to smooth out his style and learned to draw longer lines. 

These trips are all about surfing and improving your surfing through coaching, video, and sheer water time. There is a yoga deck on the property and we will have some casual stretching sessions, but we really want to focus on the discipline of reading and riding waves. Each camp is a week a long -- if you want to sign up for two that can be discussed -- and includes transportation, food, lodging, and coaching while on site, i.e., you have to pay for your own airfare and travel to camp and food whilst off camp, but everything at camp is included. The itinerary of each week will depend on tides, swells, and weather conditions, and we will work to get everyone on board with the surf forecasting tools that we use. 

All boards will be provided, and we will have a range of boards from fishes to single fins to tanker logs. You're welcome to bring your own boards of course. Both Jet Blue and American have decent rates, so remember this when booking your ticket. Jet Blue is $50 per board -- they will open your bag -- and is the best deal if you're only bringing one board. American is $150 per bag -- they don't care how many boards you have -- and is the best deal if you want to bring three or more boards. Try to book the flights that arrive in San Jose Int'l Airport before or around 12p. It takes about 3 hours to get to Rancho Diandrew from the airport. There is a bus that arrives in Uvita or you can arrange for a mini bus or take a taxi. You'll also want to leave on a midday or, even better, afternoon flight. If you leave on a morning flight it's best to book at hotel room in San Jose the night previous. We can help you sort all of this out.

Space is going to be very coveted and limited for these so please get in touch asap so that we can arrange your dates and the deposit. Simply email conatussurfclub@gmail.com to set it up.