CostaRica

The second step of the Amaury Academy brought me to Costa Rica and this was the first time for me in the country. For a long time now I wanted to discover this tropical land, the world of Pura Vida! Many good riders come from Costa Rica, they have a massive bodyboarding community inspired since a long time by Brasil, California and Hawaii.
In Summer the Caribbean side is on and in Winter the Pacific Ocean cost line is getting some serious south swells.

Jony, from Sniper Puerto Rico, contacted with Carlos Fallas, a local bodyboarder from the famous wedge del Hoyo, one of the best wave of Costa Rica.
He is a English teacher and a passionate bodyboarder and after a few months of preparation I arrived in the country for an official course of my Academy at Playa Hermosa on the Pacific coast.

We arrived from Puerto Rico as a team with Jony, Pepe Villalon, a famous local of the Aguadilla area and Luis Perez another Sniper team rider, and Carlos  has welcomed us royally. The Academy  was planned for the week end we had the whole week to cruise, surf and enjoy this amazing country.

We spend a long time on the road the first days to meet many people and Carlos was really happy to show us his country.
We surfed some really fun waves at El Hoyo around Puntarenas, we went to Roca Bruja (Witches Rock), a famous and secret beach that you could see in the old surfing movie Endless Summer II and we scored some really fun waves.

As the Academy was just for two days it was pretty intense. We had like 20 riders with 5 girls and all with a different level which was hard sometimes to manage.
We did pretty much the same work that we did in Puerto Rico, mainly the basis of the sport, speed, position, paddling, duckdive. One more time the most important is to work on the basis. As I said “I am not here to change your style, I am here to get it better and improve your performance by using your style at 100%¨
Some people come to the Academy thinking I would give them the secret to do an air reverse or a bak flip but this is not the case as before thinking about a big move there are a lot of steps before that and it is better to start at the beginning. Step by step.

So in the morning we did some technical training and in the afternoon I organised a tag team. It was such a good moment. It is good to compete in a team to support each other and to take a victory all together! Everybody did a great job and learned about himself in a competition situation.

We finish the course surfing all together with a great sunset and nice vibes on the beach talking and sharing a really nice moment.

Thanks to Bowie´s Point to take care of us during the Academy, Thanks to Carlos and Marcial to trust me as a teacher and as a friend and I really hope to catch you next year with more time to enjoy this amazing country!
PURA VIDA MAE