This week the Chica Brava Surf House was filled with surf, smiles, and a daily dose of CHOCO BANANOS!!! For those of you new to the ways of the CHOCO BANANO…. there is a hole in the wall – literarily – spot where you walk up, yell “ CHOCO BANANO, por favor” and for 10 cordobas (50 cents), you get the most mouthwatering delicious treat to cool off any hot day in San Juan. After this discovery on day one, the chicas made it a daily priority to get their hands on this treat after each long day of surf. Our biggest Choco Banano fan had to be Maddie, hands down! An avid wake and snowboarder from Canada, Maddie honed in on her surf skills last week and stuck around for her second camp this week to get down to a shorter board. She started out on a 9’0 long board, and progressed to a shorter board throughout her two week stay. Maddie mastered riding down the line, reading the wave, and worked through our quiver until she was catching waves on a 5’11 by Thursday! This is an absolutely mind blowing feat – it takes some folks months (even years), to figure out a short board! Needless to say, we were pretty stoked on her rapid progression, Chica Brava style!
Fun fact: Post spring semester studying Kinesiology at University, Maddie takes off to the woods of northern Canada in the summers as a TREE PLANTER! She caries up to 300 trees on her personally at a time and helps with reforestation… how cool is that???
Alexandria… ‘Lexie’… Lexipedia… came to us from her tropical paradise home of St. Kitts after saving for two years to enjoy her first surf camp excursion! Lexie has spent time in the water surfing with her younger brothers… but really wanted some one on one time surfing with the chicas. Her goal this week was to up her skills and, like Maddie, move to a shorter board. Lexie is a stud in the lineup, consistently flying down the line, handling epic drops, and always keeping a smile on our faces both in and out of the water. This beautiful mermaid was able to work her way onto a 6’8 short board by Thursday as well! Check out Lexie and Maddie’s long board photo shoot with Jerson in the Bay on our Chica Brava Facebook page to see how much fun this duo had!
Sarah joined us this week all the way from Tahoe! An accomplished Cross Fit goddess and Kindergarten teacher by trade, Sarah put her athleticism to work in the water and hit the books at ‘Spanish Ya!’ for Espanol classes! Sarah surfs back home in the cold waters of costal Northern California so the tropical Nicaraguan waters were a treat! She worked on building confidence in herself when taking big drops, as well as her consistency with each wave. We saw huge improvement throughout the week as Sarah became more and more confident and consistent – i’m sure the chica cheers had something to do with it 😉 Plus, her surf arms are perfect!!! We can’t wait to hear about how much fun she has applying her new skills to the lineups back home!
Our other Sara (no ‘h’), happens to be a Professor de Espanol!!! She flew down from Minneapolis to surf with us, and while she was brand spankin’ new to the sport, you would not have known it. From day one Sara was popping up and ready to paddle to the outside with the rest of the crew! Even when a huge swell rolled through on Wednesday, Sara stayed with the pack, paddled to the outside, and rode a giant all the way in!
To top off an epic crew of ladies, MY MOMMY CAME THIS WEEK! Amber joined Chica Brava all the way from Phoenix, AZ. She has been rowing crew for about 12 years now, and came to Chica Brava for a change of pace and taste of a somewhat new sport. Amber has surfed on and off for quite some time, but hadn’t spent much time on a board since attending a surf camp in Costa Rica five years ago. Well…this fearless chica absolutely dominated the lineup this week… seriously. On Thursday, at Playa Remanso, she caught a HUGE drop and ended up riding it the entire length of the beach. EPIC! If a monster set rolled through, you could be sure to see her paddling into one of those beasts and riding it all the way in. Check out this video of me and Momma bear below!
I am so proud of all of our Chica Bravas this week for their amazing accomplishments in and out of the water. Thank you all for such a wonderful trip filled with laughter, great surf, and lots of adventure. You came together as individuals and grew into beautiful friends. I am so grateful for our week together and can’t wait to hear from you all soon!
Enjoy your moments and stay stoked!
Kellyanne,
Surf Instructor Extraordinaire
Surf House, July 12-19, 2014
