The Oxford Dictionary defines the term Cowabunga as: an informal exclamation used to express delight or satisfaction. ‘Cowabunga’ definitely made a come back from it’s retro roots of the US television cartoon show – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – this past week at Chica Brava! Ten women of all ages and backgrounds got together to take ‘delight’ in riding waves, blasting music on safaris through the jungle, playing late night games, dancing, and hooting and hollering at one another during party waves and epic wipe-outs. With ten women, three instructors, and myself, we were rolling 14 deep, a number that bodes fun and adventure – no matter what!
With three returning guests – Janet of Boston, Koto of Montreal (3rd time returnee!), and Carolyn from Los Angeles who brought along her sister Faith and a friend Caroline, three chicas from Philly (Maria, Michelle and Nicole), Abigail from California and Emily of Australia – this group was stacked with radical women. Janette (61), and Emily (26), were perhaps the most classic roommate pair I have seen yet, in my time at Chica Brava. These two would be up late at night laughing away, bust out treats from their room for the rest of the crew, or blast music and have mini dance parties while getting ready to go to town. They were the pair to join if you wanted to have some extra fun!
The Cowabunga craze began on day one when someone was sporting a tank that screamed ‘Cowabunga’ in big neon letters. From that moment on, the team name stuck – and not too mention inspired the rapid development of nicknames within the team! Some of my personal favorites: Koto – the big wave hunter – shredder, Nicole – the spider (due to her unnaturally quick pop up), and Abi – the wild card, for her crazy mad skills and rapid speed surfing down the line! At the end of the week, we held an informal poolside awards ceremony to highlight everyone’s skills in and out of the water; Mama leche, a.k.a Janet (she really loved the fresh milk from the Cloud Farm cows every morning with her coffee), won the award for ‘grooviest moves’…watch her testimonial and you will see why!
The Cowabunga team as a whole truly represented what Chica Brava is all about: sharing fun with old and new friends, in and out of the water.
With all the adventures we packed into this week, the group could easily create it’s own comic strip! Surf trips to Remanso, Hermosa, a boat trip to Playa Yankee – to conquer big waves with Koto, ‘the shredder’ – an evening session at Playa Maderas, grubbing the famous fish tacos at ‘Tacos Locos’, turtle viewing at Playa La Flor, a sailboat ride to an abandoned beach, a journey to the views of Jesus, and all the epic rides back and forth to the Cloud Farm in the land cruisers to hall our big group, are some of the adventures! The highlight of the week, however, was Friday-Fun-Day – as it was Cowabunga to the max! All the girls on the outside, surfing together, and completely delighting in their own green waves, as well as the rides of all their surf buddies around them were scoring.
Every great comic book series has an exciting end, but always includes a sequel; and with three returnees who plan on coming back, there is only one way to end this blog….’To be continued’…
Aloha
Noelani
Camp Operation Manager
Cloud Farm September 14-21, 2013
