Last week’s camp was held at the Surf House, and can be described to perfection by one word: lovely. The ladies, the weather, the waves, the condition, the group dynamic, the instructors, the food, the extra activities…it was all absolutely lovely! All eight chicas had backgrounds in snowboarding, an appetite for adventure, a desire to progress in their surfing and an attitude of gratitude that made for a week of lots of surf, fun and positive vibes.

From the Bay area came Corrie and Dominika, traveling together to dip their toes into some warm ocean and leave the cold end of the Pacific behind. This was the kick off week for Dom’s summer vacation as she works as a school psychologist and Corrie was taking time away from her job in marketing to travel with her friend. Both ladies were quiet but deadly, charging both in the water and out on the town. We were all convinced that the whole ‘job’ thing is just an alias for their true spy identities, and that’s why they were really traveling in Central America…but alas, we will never know! Dom loved to cruise on the outside, enjoying quality ‘Pelican moments’ – how we refer to that daydream state that sometimes happens when you’re on the outside waiting for a set when you hear the instructors yelling at you not to head to Costa Rica!

Jackie and Samantha are both avid snowboarders from New York that also work in the snowboard industry, traveling around the US for sales and merchandising and maybe catch some powder too. They decided that they needed a summer time board sport to keep sane – so they headed down for some Chica Brava action! Sam got some BRAVA action on the very first day when her board decided to kiss her eyebrow which ended up giving her a black eye for the rest of the week – talk about bad ass small talk starter… Check out Jackie’s experience at Chica Brava and what made her trip a blast!

Irene is a cheese-maker from Florida who also shreds in the surf. She’s all about eating local and supporting the grass roots, and while she makes local, artisan cheeses, she’s still has mad respect for the Nica fried cheese! Her second day into the trip she got word that she won an international cocktail contest put on by Slow Food International. Irene’s recipe is her’s to reveal, but some of the ingredients include fresh Florida mango, locally produced vodka, and ginger. Her next trip is to Italy to go rep the cocktail, Chica Brava style! You go girl!

Kristen, a MammaBrava of two, is from Denver and decided it was about time to do something for herself and learn to surf! She did so with flying colors and was often the last out of the water, always with a big smile and sporting a high five! Julie is a medical resident from Ottawa  Canada, who loved playing in the ocean and had some pretty good ER stories to entertain us all at Happy Hour. Our 8th chica, Joanne, is a mom like Kristen and the two had a blast bonding over their mommy playtime! Joanna progressed immensely over the week and had some groovy moves on the dance floor too (not to mention her epic surf wear fashion)!

These lovely ladies and their great attitudes were rewarded by the surf gods in the way of fun, 2-3 foot surf, glassy conditions and pleasantly overcast skies that kept us in the water for hours – but unfortunately didn’t quite keep us from sunburns! Aside from hours of fun in the water, these chicas also spent time on the water by way of Catamaran and visited Playa Blanca where they saw the neighborhood chancho (pig)! We wrapped the week up with massages and delicious seafood plates at Bambu Beach Restaurant, followed by dancing at the Black Whale until we all turned into pumpkins and headed home – a bunch of surfed out, happy campers. A sincere shout out of gracias to all the ladies who joined us for the last camp of June, it was a pleasure to surf with ya’ll and share some rockin’ good times!

Aloha,
Noelani Anderson
Camp Operations Manager
Surf House, June 21-28, 2014