Surfboards. They are not all created equal. Long, short, fun, fish, mini…choosing and riding the right board can get quite completed. Let’s start with the basics.

1. A Longboard ranges from 9′-10’+. Mini-longboards are in the 8′ range and “Fun” boards in the 7′ range. Shortboards are in the 6’s to as short of a “stick” that you can ride.
   

   Courtesy of National Geographic

2. When you just start surfing, a longer board is better. Like 9 + feet. We know, this may seem contrary to what you thought, “Isn’t a longboard harder to control?” Technically yes, but a longboard offers more stability and it’s easier to catch more waves, two keys for beginner surfers.  AND if you decide to stick with using longboards, you can start to do some fancy footwork called cross-stepping (or as I like to call it, twinkle-toeing)!
   

   Photo by Avellanas Surf Photos

3. As you progress in surfing, you can start “stepping down” and playing around with board length.  Smaller boards are easier to carry, you can duck dive with them, and you have the ability to do stronger turns.  But with a shorter board, you have to work harder to paddle and catch waves, and your wave take-off point is closer to the peak – which takes an adjustment.  Don’t sacrifice wave catching ability only so you can say you surf a shorter board!  Sure, the smaller board may be easier to carry down the beach and travel with, but if you are catching fewer waves in the water because your board is too short, then you are missing out on the fun!
4. Wave size and conditions help dictate what board in your “quiver” you should use. For example, Tamarindo is a great longboard wave vs. Playa Grande, a couple miles down the beach, is a better short board spot.  This is because Tamarindo tends to have more of a rideable shoulder, is not as a fast breaking wave as Playa Grande, and smaller wave size.
5. Sound confusing? I like to say, “keep it simple.” Chose one board and ride that board until you get comfortable on that board. Each board has a “sweet spot”, and switching out boards every day just gets too confusing!
   

   Photo by Secondhand Surfer

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This past weekend Tamarindo lost a larger than life man. His witty comments, bellowing voice, and that school boy smile…how we will miss that charisma. The deep love and PRIDE for his children. Sweet Marie, te quiero mucho chica.

Scott, may you be free as a bird, run like a stallion, swim like a dolphin, and play like a Tamarindo beach dog.

May us all remember to live our lives to the fullest. Enjoy the moments. Follow your dreams, listen to your heart, talk to your soul. Just be you.

Rest in peace amigo.

Pura Vida,

Kristen

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Because it is a Friday afternoon here in Costa Rica…and about 5:30PM on the East Coast as I am typing this…I am going to keep this post short and sweet. Well, also because I am secretly plotting to take over the world and my brain has been on overload this week…y’all will keep my secret, right???

One of the things that I do EVERY day is write in my journal. I don’t even surf everyday, although a lot of y’all think I spend every moment of daylight in the water. Well, last night I realized that I have been in Costa Rica for exactly one year. I knew the “anniversary” was coming up, but I honestly had forgotten what the exact date was. Enter my handy-dandy journal.

So to celebrate my “costa-versary”, here is to another year of adventure of all the ups  AND downs; dawn patrols & glass offs, Samba to the Sea designs, giggling gaggle of girls, Endless Summer with RA and co., As the Cabina Turns, dancing with waves and twinkle stepping, and you know…who knows! Because that is what an adventure really is…

Pura Vida,

Kristen

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Sometimes you just gotta do things that scare ya…like dropping in at Labarinto.

Three months ago I tricked myself into going for a run. You see running and I don’t get along so well. But since this route is actually “enjoyable”, off I went. I was staying at a friend’s in the Village, and I traversed over to the Hudson River, then ran up to Chelsea. After I had enough, I conveniently found myself at the entrance to The Highline and since I had time on my hands, I decided to wander my way back to the Village. To some of you, this may sound like a redundant post, but I conveniently left something out of that post back in July…

Bringing this post back to present day, like the NYC run mentioned above, yesterday afternoon I was tricked into going for a run. You see, I had not surfed in two days (what?!?!) and I could not stare at my screen anymore. Usually this would mean that I would hop on my yoga mat, but this song with a great beat to run to was stuck in my head. Ironically, it was the song to the overly sensual and, in my opinion, degrading ad introducing Steph Gilmore to the Roxy team during the Roxy Pro Biarritz. Putting my opinion aside, motivation is motivation, I downloaded the song and off I went on my run.

Ok, so where am I going with all of this talk of running? Well, after my trot yesterday, I was reminded of a billboard from my NYC run after coming across a post in a blog that I stumbled upon yesterday.

Can you see it?

Take note of the orange billboard. As I was walking on The Highline back in July, I noticed this billboard being put up. It reads, “The less you need, the richer the experience” by no other than Patagonia. Talk about timing. Here I was visiting NYC, in a city surrounded by wants and desires, almost a year after leaving all of that behind to live in a tropical beach town in Costa Rica.

As I read and digested this billboard, I thought about how pretty much overnight, I went from ultimate city living, in one of the greatest cities in the world, to that of ultimate beach living. I reflected on how my needs and wants have become more distinguished in the year living in Costa Rica. Part of this is because getting certain things here in Costa Rica is a challenge, as well as more expensive. Part of it is because my daily essentials consist of:

“Over the past couple of days I went back to my shopping cart and felt hesitant to click ‘purchase and deliver’. Why was I dilly-dallying when I was so tremendously excited about the opportunity to get more stuff? So I deleted my shopping cart – I realized I don’t really need any of it and thinking about what I did want was starting to stress me out.

Of course I like new things and having treats and spoiling myself on occassion, but I have everything I need right now and the feeling I get from knowing that is more than any ‘click and deliver’ high could ever give me. We are told again and again (in North America especially) that more stuff will make us happier and I’ve seen people who so firmly believe in it that they would rather spend their days in a job they hate just so they can feel the freedom of buying more things whenever they feel like it.”

“I hope I don’t sound preachy in this post in a new-age hippie, spiritual ‘I found the secret of life!’ kind of way. I wanted to share my gratitude with my readers in having a simple life and not wanting for much and hope that this could inspire anyone out there to make the same realization for themselves.”

Pura Vida,

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Our daily lives our filled with decisions. Milk or sugar? Skirt, dress or pants? Happy hour or yoga? Sometimes we know what the outcome will be of a decision; yes, I will take my coffee with just cream.  But then there are decisions that lead to outcomes that we never could fathom.

Two years ago today, forgoing visiting a friend in Spain, I hopped on a plane to Costa Rica to help scratch the surfing itch that had taken hold of me four months prior. My trip was great. It rained, no poured, the whole week. I wiped out over and over and OVER again. I even got a head cold. But somehow Costa Rica put a magic spell on me.  So much so that I returned just three short months later with friends that I had met during my first trip. Then I met Robert August. One decision, and the rest is, you know, history…

As my mother would say, surfing ruined my life. So much so that the pictures below are proof.

Pura Vida,

Kristen

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367 days ago, one of my close friends since childhood presented me with a journal.  However, it is not just a normal journal, but rather a five year memory book where you write a line a day. Instead of writing an entry on the blank pages from front cover to back cover, for your first entry you find the current date (i.e. September 23) in the journal, and compose your one line entry for that day. You then continue the next day, and every day after that, until you complete one year of entries. When you complete that year, you then write your daily entries underneath the prior years entry. The added benefit here is that you are instantly reminded of where you were and what you did exactly one, two, three, four or five years ago.

Well, 365 days ago, on September 23, 2012, I inked my first entry,

“NY, NY it has been an amazing ride. Thank you for your love and also being a pain in my butt. Here is the adventure that awaits! XOs KB”

To say that the past year has been an amazing adventure is an understatement. So in the spirit of reflecting, and instead of waiting for December and the common year in review, I thought I would  re-post some photos of the past year, since I do tend to tell my life story through photographs…

What started it all: Leaving NYC

#lifeafterciti

 “I surfed with dolphins today = AMAZING/ take your breath away moment @Newport Beach”

“Here is to a CR adventure!’ 

Experiencing Pura Vida 

Working for Robert August

 “My desk has an ocean front view of beautiful waves”

“Life is like riding a wave…A wave only breaks once and you only live once”

What Samba to the Sea means…

Watching the sky get painted…

“Perhaps the most beautiful sunset I have seen.”

Dawn Patrols:

“Glad I got out of bed…waves were on fire…caught a really awesome, long left.”

 Perfection at Ollie’s

“Amazing day in the office…got barreled twice”

Wedding season:

 Getting a custom made Robert August surfboard:

“I have heard that sometimes your first time is not that good. Mine was amazing…Waimea rocked my world.”

Creating Postcards

So here is to what the next year will bring!

Pura Vida,

Kristen

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Back in September when I left my job and NYC, my childhood friend gave me an amazing going away present, a journal. Over the years I have sporadically written my thoughts and ideas in journals, but this gift was different. This journal has a great concept; it is called “One Line A Day: A Five Year Memory Book”. The concept of the journal is that each page has 5 spots to write down your thoughts/ideas/inspirations/recap from that day, and on the same day the next year you will see what happened the prior year, etc.

I started writing in my “One Line a Day” the night before I left NYC for this amazing journey that I am on and every couple of weeks I like to look back and read some of my entries. Not so surprisingly, a lot of my entries are about surfing. I can’t believe how much I have learned about not just the physical nature of this sport, but the mental aspect as well, and how much more that is possible.

Well, over the week that I was sidelined from not being able to get in the water (thankfully only one week, I got back in the water last week), I took some time to reflect on what surfing has taught me so far…here goes…

• You can do anything that you set your mind to: I wouldn’t be writing this post if I had not decided to act on my crazy idea and leave Corporate America and the Big Apple…
• Be patient: Back in December, I paddled out for a glass-off, sunset session. For some reason I was not feeling it. There were so many people in the water and my arms were sore. Then all of a sudden I found myself paddling farther out to catch an outside set wave and as a result I had this beautiful ride. In about 30 seconds I went from being cranky to on cloud nine. In other words, wait for the good moments and let the other “stuff”  flow right past you.
• You are never too old to laugh or make fun of yourself: I love catching a beautiful wave as much as any other surfer, but half of the fun out there for me is being able to hysterically laugh my butt off from a funny wipeout. Gets me every time. There is nothing like a good laugh and a bright smile. 🙂

• Mother Nature is amazing: The gorgeous sunsets and sunrises, the raw and powerful breaking wave, emerald-turqouise clear water, iguanas, monkeys, birds…are all beyond beautiful and just breathtaking.

• Don’t be afraid to take risks: Charging down a head-high + wave is a pretty exhilarating thing…BUT wiping out and going through the washing machine happens, you just gotta shake it off and charge down the next one!
• Surround yourself with good people and positive energy: Being surrounded by the right people makes all the difference. Weed out the bad ones and feed off the positive energy.
• Just keep swimming: Everyone is allowed a bad session, just make sure you brush yourself off and take away some lessons and so you can rip it up on the next session!
• Waking up at 5AM for dawn-patrol is rewarding: You know that saying, “The early-bird gets the worm”??? Well, being the first one to paddle out and having the waves all to yourself (well maybe sharing with a couple other friends) is so worth that early wake-up call.

• Watching a sunset is even better when you are on a surfboard: There is something magical about sitting out in the water on your surfboard, watching the sun go down, catching beautiful waves, and being part of the Mother Nature’s symphony.
• AND last, but not least: The blissful feeling of pure stoke. For all you non-surfers out there, this is pure elation. Dropping in and riding a beautiful wave never ceases to amaze me….STOKE.

All in all, I feel so blessed. Thank you, thank you, thank you! And here is to the many more lessons to come!

[slideshow]

Pura Vida,

Kristen

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Facebook asked me the other day if I would like to see my “2012 Year in Review,” which highlights my top 20 moments of the year. Like a lot of things that Facebook prompts and advertises, I ignored it. Then yesterday I figured I would give good ‘ole FB a chance and see how accurate it could be.

Well, it flopped on some some things, but some others were pretty spot on. Like my trip with my family to Portugal to celebrate my parents’ 40th anniversary, my status on surfing with a pod of dolphins in Newport Beach, and my goodbye post to NYC.

Then there was the photo album of my trip to Costa Rica in February that started this whole amazing roller-coaster ride. I can’t believe how far I have come since the phone call I made to my mom 10 months ago upon landing in Miami from Costa Rica, telling her that I wanted to quit my job and move to Costa Rica. She just laughed and said “OK Kristen,” her normal response to my crazy ideas. I laughed back, but told her I was serious.

If any of y’all have not been following my posts the past couple of months (why have you not been reading?!?!), the brief version is that 10 months ago this was all a dream. Now I am living my dream. How lucky am I?

I think it is part luck, part everything happens for a reason, part planning for some wild life change decision like this, and part having the guts to do it.

Bottom line is that if I had not started doing yoga two years ago that helped prepare me for change, or had not taken that first surf lesson on a rainy overcast day out in Rockaway, or went to Spain instead of booking on-a-whim a surf trip to Costa Rica, OR if I had not been studying so diligently for my GMATs during my second Costa Rica surf trip, would I be sitting here right now reflecting on a wild, crazy, and awesome 2012?

Who knows what 2013 will bring, or if the world will end tomorrow on December 21st, but at least I know that I am LIVING this crazy plan that I concocted who knows when!

And my final reflections on 2012 are sung best by CCR or Tuna Turner, depending on which version you like:

Left a good job in the city
Workin’ for the Man every night and day
But I never lost a minute of sleepin’
Worryin’ ’bout the way things might have been

Big wheel keep on turnin’
Proud Mary keep on burnin’
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ on the river

And I know that I have been silent for a while…I am making up for it with some great pictures from my last week in Costa Rica and now Georgia!

[slideshow]

XOs

Kristen

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I love how music can transport you instantly to another time and memory in your life. All of a sudden Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream” comes on the radio, and I am 16 years old again. I am sitting on the bleachers, jamming to him on my first (and original) iPod,  getting ready to play in the the championship game for my high school basketball team’s holiday tournament. So last week in yoga class when “To Build a Home” by The Cinematic Orchestra came on during Savasana, I could not hold it in and the tears started flowing.

Now I am not person that usually cries, but ever since I started practicing yoga a year and a half ago, I have found a deeper connection to myself. Laying on the mat last week I was taken back to where yoga started for me and all the experiences and emotions in between. Needless to say, I am deeply thankful for being able to practice a beautiful moving meditation.

Fast forward a week later, and I found myself really agitated during class last night. During class I was trying to figure out and analyze what was going on. I was agitated that my yoga capris were not stretchy enough and therefore constricting some of my movement. My body felt full of gunk because I had not been on the mat for a week as a result of July 4th holiday and having close friends visiting me.  And then I was also thinking about having to pack-up and clean my apartment.

Still even more thoughts were racing through my mind that contributed to this agitation. After an hour and a half of sweaty flow, I finally decided to let go at the end of class, during savasana. One of my yoga teachers mentioned in class a couple weeks ago that “yoga is the space in between our thoughts”. I let go of my racing mind and concentrated on the space in between, the pause of peace and silence. Magically I started to feel better and the agitation drifted away…

…and magically today the music brought me back to yesterday’s agitation. I recently discovered the group Of Monsters and Men and I  currently have their album “My Head is an Animal”  on repeat on my iPod. After probably the 5th time today of listening to the song “Little Talk”, something finally clicked.

“There’s an old voice in my head that’s holding me back, Well tell her that I miss our little talks, Soon it will all be over and buried without past… Some days, I feel like I’m wrong when I am right, Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear, ‘Cause though the truth may vary, this ship will carry, Our bodies safe to shore.”

So for today’s words of wisdom and teachings from yoga, although it is good to contemplate and ponder, sometimes we just need to let go. Even though we would love for our problems to magically disappear, releasing the agitation will help us see clearer.  Whatever it is, let it go my friends.

Namaste.

XOs

Kristen

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“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver

I am a 26 year-old (wait, I am how young?!) female and I live and work in the Big Apple aka New York City.

Samba to the Sea is about living, learning, reflecting, and discovering what I want to be when I grow up.

I hope you enjoy reading and if you get anything out these posts (hopefully a chuckle or two), I am more than thankful to have scribed my thoughts in cyberspace.

So stay tuned for the adventure that awaits!

XOs

-K

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