Chica Brava hosted 5 amazing women at the Surf House last week.
Kristin is a piano teacher in New Jersey, who has never surfed before. She traveled with her friends Kat and Kirsten where Kat is also a piano teacher, but in Houston, but never touched a surfboard! Kirsten, who is originally from holland, met Kristin in New Jersey and figured since she has only done one surf lesson before, why not try out a week long retreat to master the skill!
We also had Casandra, from Quebec, who has surfed in Ecuador and came to Nicaragua with the plan to perfect her skills. And then, there is Gina! Even though it was Gina’s final week with us, she rocked it and ended on such a high! All ladies got to surf multiple breaks along our beautiful Pacific coastline such as Playa Remanso, Playa Hermosa and even La Bahia (San Juan del Sur’s Bay).
Kirsten was working on her pop up and by day 3, she had it down! On Wednesday she paddled to the outside and surfed her first green wave. Throughout her stay Kristin gained a lot of confidence in the water and caught some really fun waves. Kat was rocking her pop up during her first two days and even paddled to the outside on mid-week where she worked hard on her paddling and timing. This helped her catch a ton of green waves and made her able to go down the line by the end of the week! Kirstin mastered her pop up during her first days and made it to the outside her third day. Her paddling and timing got significantly stronger, and on her last day, she was paddling into her own waves. Dale chica!
Casandra, who was on the outside by the second day, worked on optimizing her paddling and her timing of getting into her own waves. By the end of her week, she was catching some beautiful green waves and going down the line, by herself! Last, but definitely not least, Gina had a huge break through during her last two weeks with us (she stayed for 6 weeks). Throughout her 6 week stay with us, she increased her confidence in the water, improved her wave reading skills, and perfected her paddling and timing. Every time possible, she paddled to the outside and caught sweet green waves, all the way to the beach!
Our lovely ladies also went on a sunset sailboat cruise to Playa Blanca where they relaxed, swam and drank fresh cocktails while watching the beautiful Nicaraguan sunset on the Pacific Ocean. They also did a canopy tour through the Nicaraguan jungle, said “Hey to the J” (Jesus statue over the Bay of San Juan) and joined yoga classes at Zen Yoga to stretch out their much needed surfing muscles. On their last day, they got there well deserved massages, and enjoyed delicious pizza followed by some dancing. What a fun week!
Thank you ladies for an incredible week! Hope to see you soon!
Stephanie Fischer
Surf Instructor Extraordinaire
Surf House, July 16th – July 23rd, 2016