How could I not love my job?

I have the great fortune of being a surf school co-owner and instructor, so it is literally my job to get people stoked. That, and of course, actually teaching them how to surf. Now, for the lesson part, like any other job, I have the option of just “going through the motions”, of taking those steps that one memorizes after so many times of doing something. However, the reason that I don’t do that is because I love my job. Granted, even on those days where I don’t feel like giving a lesson, within about 3 seconds of arriving at the beach my positive attitude is back — there’s no denying the great fortune of getting to work in Bahia Ballena, Costa Rica.

Spreading The Joy Of Surfing

My love for the job goes beyond the obvious — it’s not because I get to be at the beach, surfing, and meeting awesome people, (although those are great), but because of the end result. That email that I get after someone goes back home to their reality of work, school, usually cold weather, telling me that not only did the love their surfing experience, but that it was life changing for them. That they are going to continue surfing, if that means going in freezing cold water and having to wear a thick and uncomfortable wetsuit and dealing with the prospect of — eek — great white sharks! Or that they’ve decided to buy a board and figure out a way to make it happen — despite the fact that they don’t live anywhere near the ocean!

An Amazing Job

I’m not saying it’s me that’s “converting” these people, it’s not. Or at least, not entirely. I have the deck stacked completely in my favor: Costa Rica, beach, warm water, fun, and an adrenaline-filled activity. Yet I have met people who have taken lessons before with instructors who seemed to be uninterested in really helping their clients, something that I simply cannot understand; surf instructors have one of the greatest jobs around.

The Addiction

So I do my best to not just convey my knowledge of surfing, but also of the ocean, the area, and anything else that may be pertinent. Though I have about 2-3 hours with most of these people, that’s more than enough time to make a lasting impact. So I let my own excitement about the sport be evident, knowing very well that it will be contagious. Because as much as catching one’s first few waves can be such an addicting feeling, for me the addiction is getting that email.

We had a big year in 2011, and we wanted to put our favorite moments from the year in one place. So, here is the list of the moments from last year that we are the happiest/most proud/most excited about:

Community Service

Achievements

Alliances

Personal

Here’s a bit about each of our retreats.

The Essentials: A Yoga and Surf

February 18-24, 2012

March 3-9, 2012

April 21-27, 2012

July 14-20, 2012

This quintessentially “Bodhi” retreat features daily yoga and surf lessons as well as a variety of other activities to acquaint you with the amazing country of Costa Rica and to promote “the stoke” in your life.

Learn more about The Essentials Retreat

The Goals of The Essentials Retreats Are…

• To help you accomplish your personal surf and yoga goals, i.e. standing up on a board, and/or learning to become more flexible
• To share with you this friendly and awesome Costa Rican town, including the beauty of the environment and its natural wonders
• To meet great people and potential new friends, and have the time of your life!

Flow: A Women’s Retreat

February 11-18, 2012

This women’s only retreat is designed to inspire you and reconnect you with your natural flow through surf, yoga, and heart-centered workshops.

Learn more about the Flow Retreat

The Goals of the Flow Retreat Are…

• To get you out of your daily routine and comfort zone, and into a new environment to promote physical, mental and spiritual development
• To have the beautiful setting of the jungle mountains and vast ocean inspire and re-energize you
• To help you make positive transformations in your life and help you incorporate them into your routine back home

The Empowered Self Retreat

March 24-30, 2012

The Empowered Self Retreat combines the mind-body activities of yoga and surfing with self-development through behavioral therapy sessions, a perfect balance of productive and fun time.

Learn more about The Empowered Self Retreat

The Goals of The Empowered Self Retreat Are…

• To promote inner awakening and (re)kindle your joy for life
• To bring about a deep relaxation and mental repose that comes from a fulfilling vacation
• To assist you attain lasting behavior change that will help you accomplish your personal goals

Mapping Slowly But Surely

At the moment our community is involved in three projects with GPS-GIS. The two most recent projects are mapping butterflies and birds with 3rd and 5th graders from the elementary school La Flor de Bahia. The mapping aspect of the project is an additional component to a larger project that the school is executing with INBIOpark that involves learning the scientific method to document and inventory flora and fauna in the community of Bahia Ballena-Uvita. The third project we are working on is trash mapping with members from Grupo SURF 2010 and the new Grupo SURF that is forming for 2011. This project involves picking up and mapping trash in our community, separating the recyclables from non-recyclables, and developing art products from recycled material to sell to visiting tourists. The project aims to help students locate and map “trash hot spots” in their community, provide solutions to our community trash problem, and develop a small income generating activity. Stay tuned in for updates!

The Case Western Reserve University Contribution Continues

The Case Western students’ work may have “ended” but with their donations we have been able to also paint the front of the school, plant “rabo leon” with the help of friends from Ruta Verde, the Sierra Club, and our friends at La Cusinga. Futhermore, the shovels, rakes, and hand planting utensils will be used during our most current project to transform the back of the school into an outdoor learning classroom equipped with biogardens, a recycling center, and tree and plant nursery. By putting tools in our hands, Case Western is actively contributing to the sustainable development of our community. Thank you Case Western Reserve University, and trip leaders Angela and Nicole! We can’t wait to see you in 2012!

Being approved as full members of muchbetteradventures.com, a carefully selected collection of adventure providers who have a strong ongoing commitment to sustainability, is no easy task.

We believe it is the ‘Trip Advisor’ of adventure travel, specially designed to support local businesses and reward businesses committed to executing ethical practices. As a user, the platform that Much Better Adventures developed allows you to get in direct contact with their members through their “own” websites, avoid paying commissions, select from a wide-variety of listings, check out reviews from others who have been, receive special offers and last minute deals and much more. As an organization committed to promoting responsible tourism, they work closely with Sustainable Travel International and The Travel Foundation to develop a vetting procedure, so you can be sure that if someone claims to be ‘muchbetter’, they will be just that and maybe even MUCH MUCH BETTER. By building the widest and fairest selection of ethical adventure travel choices that outdoor lovers have ever seen, Much Better Adventures, brings support to many important conservation and community development projects around the world.

Check out the Bodhi Surf profile on MuchBetterAdventures.

And of course, spread the good word about the GREAT work Much Better Adventures is doing!

Some Yoga Styles

It is said that in the beginning yoga was a philosophical discipline to embrace a way of life that will lead us to enlightenment. The main branches: Jnana, karma & bhakti yoga had no physical positions at all, most of all they were based on connecting with the “divine” thru knowledge, service and devotion. Meditation of course was an essential component of the practice, as it still is. Then, hatha yoga emerged with the idea to integrate the body and unite with our mind and soul through movement, proper breathing and concentration. And 2,000 years later we found a vast amount of styles from the more classical ones like Lyengar, Kundalini or Ashtanga to the modern approaches such as Vinyasa Flow, which is actually derived from the Ashtanga method, and intended to provide the teacher with the freedom to integrate his/her creativity. Also, a new style of yoga that has emerged and grown quite rapidly in the last decade is yoga of “opening to grace”, or Anusara yoga. I am not a full-time practitioner of this style, but I do enjoy the ideas and concepts it brings and specially its focus on alignment.

Choosing The Right Yoga Style

I could keep naming yoga styles, but what I want to focus on, is how to choose the right type for you and here is a few tips if you want to embark yourself in the journey of practicing yoga:

First focus on what you want and where you are at in your life. By this I mean, focus on your age, lifestyle, what you are looking for, and what you feel you need. For example: If your intention goes mostly towards fitness, if you want to strength your body and have more flexibility, perhaps you should look into Vinyasa Flow, Power or Hot Yoga. If you are recovering from an injury, make sure you talk about it with your instructor before practicing, and that the teacher has the knowledge and experience required to meet your needs. Remember, a yoga teacher is not a physiotherapist, nor a psychologist. If you have a very specific intention, such as prenatal yoga, look for someone with plenty of experience on the subject, otherwise you may end up disappointed.

Take some time to try learning from different yoga teachers, styles, and schools before settling on the one that suits you the best. Remember that this is a process and that during the process there is a constant change in experiences and emotions. Live the experience; sometimes you may come out of the class feeling light with you heart open and full of energy, other days not so much. Yoga is not a magical medicine that cures and heals and makes everything perfect. It is an additional tool to improve your life. Also remember, your teacher or teachers are not perfect either, don’t expect from them to cure every wound and every pain, they are also students and they are on their own journey as well. Don’t let yourself be drawn by the impulse to keep changing teachers and schools out of disappointment.

I am in favor of videos, downloads, podcasts and all the modern tools provided to facilitate your yoga practice at home. However, these tools are better suited for those who understand the fundamental concepts of yoga, such as alignment and breathing, otherwise you may injur yourself. If you are living in a remote area where there are no schools or teachers nearby this is a very effective method to continue with your practice. It is also very helpful for those who don’t want to travel to yoga schools, follow a schedule, or sit in traffic. If you fall in any of these categories, technology is your best option as it makes it easy to jump on your yoga mat anytime.

I am one of those people who live in a relatively remote area therefore I have to practice on my own most of the time. I create most of my own sequences, but sometimes I need to follow someone else’s class. So, to find new classes I always rely on www.myyogaonline.com because they have all types of videos with many creative sequences, styles, and length of time. I also read a lot to enhance my meditation and philosophy section; at this moment I am reading Sally Kempton’s articles and information, which I highly recommend. She has a very simple, grounded and beautiful way of explaining valuable knowledge for ancient scripts, and how we can put them into action.

Finally, remember yoga can be anything you want it to be. It usually starts by being more like a physical practice, but if you continue on this path you may start noticing changes in the way you perceive life, in your emotions and thoughts, and even in your daily actions. Most important is to be open to the experience, have patience, and enjoy the process without obsessing with the results. Let your practice evolve without forcing it, and accept the ups and downs that come with it. The best you can do is to have fun with it and consider your practice as a time to play!

Namaste!

We are in the midst of developing an exciting new family retreat in beautiful Bahia Ballena, Costa Rica, that offers yoga, surfing, nature tours and the opportunity to participate in a community mural painting! This partnership between Bodhi Surf School, The WholeMe! Programs and Art with Meaning is a way of strengthening community and family bonds through fun, holistic activities! The first week-long retreat is being planned for December 2012. My wife Brigitta, a master’s level and registered Dance Movement Therapist, and certified Children’s Yoga Teacher, is the founder of The WholeMe! Programs, which serves to nurture and support young children’s social, emotional and physical development through yoga and the expressive arts. I, Dave White, am the founder of Art with Meaning, a custom-art business that turns what’s meaningful to you into beautiful artwork.

Bodhi Surf and Art With Meaning

Now let’s take a step back. How is Art with Meaning and WholeMe! Programs connected to Bodhi Surf School, anyway? Here’s the story:

I met my friend Travis Bays, founder of Bodhi Surf School, in 2006 as a newly arriving Community Economic Development Adviser as part of Peace Corps Costa Rica. Travis was then a part of the same program and had already been in Costa Rica for a year, in his assigned community (and future permanent home) of Uvita, Costa Rica. We actually met my first day there during orientation! In succeeding years we stayed in touch through professional development trainings and other Peace Corps related events.

Over the course of two years in my community of La Cruz de Abangares, Guanacaste (near Monteverde), I worked on several sustainable economic development initiatives, one of which was establishing ECC La Cruz, a locally-owned and operated community credit bank. Travis was key in helping me to start this community bank project with his micro-credit connections in Costa Rica!

After a few months around town in La Cruz, it became known that I was also an artist. Before long, neighbors were requesting that I put my artistic skills to use! I first painted a few signs for La Campesinita, a small marmalade-producing business, to use at tourism fairs. I later painted a custom sign for a neighbor’s farm. However, I soon thought of my own ideas and began a mural project to beautify the local school! On the front of the school, the students and I painted several cultural symbols and the phrase “Orgullosamente Guanacasteco,” or “Proudly Guanacastecan.” On the side, we painted the flags of Guanacaste and Costa Rica. The largest mural is a world map with every country in the world in Spanish. On the sides are inspirational quotes. This map was a hit, as we used it to learn geography through contests and trivia games!

This artwork helped brighten up the community landscape, connected to the local culture and was even used for educational purposes. Heck, if you search Flickr for “La Cruz de Abangares,” someone even posted a picture of the school murals here. Although I hadn’t coined the phrase yet, this truly was “art with meaning.” In my remaining months in La Cruz, I also painted a mural on the side of the local pulpería, or general store, depicting the owner’s farm and his favorite animals.

Upon returning to the States and moving to the Washington, DC area, I began working for the micro-credit loan program of the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), a non-profit which operates community-building programs in the DC region. Word of my artwork got around my new workplace, as I did a few commissioned pieces for co-workers, and was even commissioned by LEDC to paint three large murals for display in their office! Since then, I’ve continued to enjoy creating custom, meaningful artwork for others through Art with Meaning!

Personalized Surf Art

Travis and I reconnected recently and decided to create a partnership between Art with Meaning, Bodhi Surf School and Grupo SURF. Born out of this idea came “Inner Surfer Art”, which is custom-made, personalized artwork of Bodhi Surf School visitors! Ten percent of all sales are contributed to Grupo SURF, also founded by Travis, which empowers the youth of Bahia Ballena in the sustainable development of their communities through literacy, technology, surfing, and yoga programs. Inner Surfer Art provides clients with uniquely personal and beautiful artwork to decorate their home with, and to preserve the memory of their Bodhi Surf Camp experience. You can contact Bodhi Surf about your interest in Inner Surfer Art.

Art with Meaning, WholeMe! Programs, Bodhi Surf School and Grupo SURF are excited to continually strengthen our partnerships and provide educational, holistic family retreats along with beautiful artwork!

Questions, Questions, & More Questions

Having both traveled and worked in the country, she had quite a few questions for me as she started making tentative plans for how she would spend her two weeks in Costa Rica. Was it safe? Were there many people there who spoke English? What were the best places to visit? What should she absolutely not miss? I gave her my suggestions, as well as a hastily-drawn (and very inaccurate) map of Costa Rica, which included a route that I thought would hit some of the major must-see areas of Costa Rica in a two-week time frame.

Email Excerpts

She wrote me an email the morning after she got home; I was very happy to hear from her because I had been curious as to how her trip went. She began by informing me: “we arrived home last night, exhausted and very suntanned… we had the holiday of our lives!!!!” She and my uncle Don had decided to do a trip through the northern part of Costa Rica to visit her friend.

She wrote:

It began March 18th in Liberia, we travelled the next morning to La Fortuna and stayed there for two nights….we hiked to the old crater beside Arenal and swam in the lagoon, it was a gruelling hike and we were both very sore the next morning. We spent some time in the town which was quiet and lovely. It rained off and on the whole time but it was still very warm and humid. The sound of the frogs at night was so amazing… I loved the church and the food was affordable and tasty.

They traveled to Jaco, Santa Teresa, and a few other towns on the Pacific Coast.

My favorite part of her email was the very accurate description of one of the bus rides. “We took a wild ride down the mountain (our driver was so cute and calm looking but drove like a crazy man) I prayed in English and even attempted to pray in Spanish and we made it down safely to the sea….the scenery was so beautiful.” Something to remember is that Central American drivers are a little more risque than most from North America.

Their trip ended with five days in Tamarindo, where her friend lives.

We had a great five days at Tamarindo… I think this was a great place to end our holiday. We did a wonderful boat tour of the river seeing monkeys, crocodiles, many birds and even a snake. The food was excellent and a little cheaper then here, most of the hotels we stayed in included breakfast so it was affordable.

Next Visit: South Pacific Costa Rica

While they didn’t make it down to Uvita on this trip, from the sound of this email I bet they’ll be taking another trip to Costa Rica. “Don tried surfing, he just rented a board and got up right away, although the waves were small. We thought of you and Gibran often and I decided I would wait for Gibran to give me surf lessons.”

The Maya Routine

Having Maya Paz around on a daily basis definitely makes Bodhi Surf School a fun place to be. Surfing, changing diapers, breast feeding, giving surf lessons, changing diapers, burping, practicing yoga, breast feeding, changing diapers, giving yoga lessons, preparing for a yoga retreat and cleaning the house, surfboards, yoga mats, diapers, etc. are part of the daily Bodhi Surf routine. Maya Paz, in 7 weeks, has become the focus of attention for Bodhi Surf.

Business With & For People

And strategically speaking, making Maya Paz the central focus of the Bodhi Surf business model, is the best damn business decision I’ve ever made. Why? Because if I think about everything I do in terms of how it will affect Maya Paz, I’ll make my business (and life) decisions more consciously, more intelligently, and ultimately in a manner that will reflect this important quote:

“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

I can no longer think only about ME, MYSELF, and I. Those words are extinct from my vocabulary and I love every second of this new wave I’m surfing!