Well I'm back in the good ol' US of A and still have a few more vids to edit and upload from our amazing third retreat at Rancho Diandrew in SW Costa Rica. Here's the vid from Day 6. You can see that everyone's drops are getting stronger and they're really starting to hook into the waves. Also featured is the lovely waterfall at the tilapia farm just down the road from us. You'll also witness Andrew's excellent waterfall skills, which come in handy at the many wonderful gorges. The waterfalls in Costa Rica are so refreshing after a long day of surfing. They wash off all the salt and sunblock and cool down your core temp. Not to mention they're beautiful as all get out.
CSC x RDA Day 5
Intro scene gives you and inside view into our drip coffee prep. It's the Tico way to use those cotton filters and it makes an excellent strong brew. On the way down the hill we caught a local morpho butterfly on her morning commute. And of course when we got to the beach it was a pumping wave garden once again. We surfed our brains out for about 6 hours and returned home for another epic dinner followed by video review and surf seminars at (on) the conference (dining) table.
CSC x RDA Day 4
Day 4 antics without music so that you can get a sense of the commentary and banter we get going on down here. It's all clean fun. With everyone improving so rapidly we're logging hours of usable footage every day. It's getting a little unwieldy but I should have some more fun episodes up for you before this amazing trip ends. And it's not over after this one. Looks like folks in NY/NJ are getting some frosty winter tubes. Hope for more when I return. And then the March retreat is just around the corner. There are 4 spots left. For rapid improvement and the time of your life get involved!
CSC x RDA Day 3
Day 3 and people start doing bottom turns and looking for barrels! I may have to pull this down because of the music, but enjoy for as long as it's up. More vids on the way. We're having an epic time down here. Andrew just saw a guy get spit out of a barrel on the local cam, so we need to hit the beach. Catch ya later!
CSC x RDA Day 2
Here's the video of the first full day of our third retreat. The previous one was a half day with Andrew and I surfing first. This one includes all three students: Christina, Johan, and Mariza who successfully dodged volcanoes to join us just one day late. The waves were on point once again: 2-3 feet and offshore in the morning, and glassy in the afternoon; lefts and rights. Everyone made huge progress with dropping in at the power source. We also had an epic fish and vegetable feast. Stay tuned for Day 3!
CSC x RDA Retreat 3 Well On Its Way
I thought I would do something different for this year's Costa Rica retreats and post our daily videos to the blog so that you all can follow the great times and waves that we're having down here. Above is the video from the first day of trip. Andrew and I "test out" the beach break to make sure that it is acceptable for the students. It was. Then we drove to Quepos to pick up Johann and Christina, both of whose flights successfully landed despite warnings that the Turrialba Volcano near San Jose Airport was going to spew a bit of ash into the sky. Our third member of the full retreat (we're getting a halfway member in a few days), Mariza, was not as lucky and had to spend the night in Miami awaiting a non-cancelled flight on American Airlines. [Word to the wise: lots of other carriers are landing in San Jose, but American seems to be a lot more conservative and cancels more flights.] You will see her in the next video as she arrived yesterday. After we settled Johann and Christina into their rooms, we got in a sunset surf at Playa Chaman. We finished the day with dinner of warm cabbage salad with roasted broccoli, shredded carrots, and bell pepper, tossed with a citrus vinaigrette and seared chicken breast stuffed with pesto. Dinner was followed by raw video screening and a seminar on how to use the lower body for turning.
Our goals for this crew this trip are: learn the fundamentals of turning, more board control on the inside, walking up and down the board (weight distribution generally), continued work on paddling form, graceful kickouts, backside butt drags, and hopefully a head dip or two. Everyone has had lessons with us in NY and already has the early fundamentals down, so now it is a matter of helping them engage their fins and rails to experience new parts of the wave. Another huge theme is to find the power source both for take off and for riding the wave, i.e., to make strides on wave judgment skills.
It's 5a right now. Andrew is making smoothies and we can hear surf pounding down the mountain. I still have to edit yesterday's video, so the posts are going to be 1-3 days after the day the video was created. Stay tuned!