i am angielim.

toronto to costa rica. web surfing to real surfing. pursuit of happiness.

Archive for category The Surf

One Day, We’ll Meet Again

Nov 9

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Since moving to Denmark, all I’ve been dreaming and wishing for is to surf again. The paddle out, the wait, the paddle into the wave and then the ride. Everything about the essence of surfing is so relative to life, all from the pursuit to the accomplishing moments. We live each day wanting to achieve your best and while I can’t be out there surfing now, I can only practice my strokes through the online world of multimedia that graces us with inspirational videos such as this one from Roxy.

(Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Roxy, and while I never do sponsored posts, I felt that this was not something I wouldn’t have posted myself, so here you are and enjoy!)

We are all on this ride together.

Vidéo virale par ebuzzing

About Roxy: “We have been trailblazers from the very beginning. By marrying fashion and performance we turned our world upside down and inspired a wave of girls to head out into the surf. We were born in the ocean and carved our way to the mountains — and we’re not done yet. This is our heritage and our future — Ride strong and create the next big wave. This is a look our most inspirational Roxy girls from around the world including Olympic half pipe snowboard Gold Medalist Torah Bright, professional surfers, Kelia Moniz, Kassia Meador, Jen Smith, Monyca Byrne-Wickey, and Bruna Schmitz. We’re all on this ride together… “

Ocean, one day we will meet again.

Hiring: Marketing in Costa Rica

Nov 21

Posted by admin in The Surf | 5 Comments

When I’m asked about my experience in this last year of my life, all I can say is that I have lived more in this last year that I had hoped and imagined for. When I first left my life in Toronto back in June 2010, I had no idea what was to come, what to expect and what was to happen. The feeling of uncertainty however was quickly diminished by the sheer excitement of possibilities that would eventually allow me to discover and open up to every experience that came by way. What was supposed to be a one year contract at a company to ‘try something’ new welcomed a whole lifestyle change and perspective on life. A life dedicated to simplicity, enjoyment, fulfillment and passion.

Del Mar Surf Camp Team Picture
Team in Costa Rica. Missing Del Mar Extreme and Del Mar Surfing Academy members.


Family in Costa Rica

And so, just over a full year of working with Del Mar Surf Camp and then subsequently Del Mar Extreme and Del Mar Surfing Academy, I can confidently say that what turned out to be ‘job’ developed into the likings of working for a family business. I love each and every business in the company, the people and the energy they bring individually. First and foremost, the business was an extension of every owner, to enjoy what they are passionate about to the fullest and to share with others. In doing so, the result and quality of service was 1000% more than what anyone else could offer. I have the most upmost respect and love every single person that I work with here as they constantly remind me what hustling and being passionate about something is like, without forgetting that at the end of the day, we work to live. Not living to work.

Following My Heart to Denmark

So today, it saddens me to say that I will be moving onto my next adventure.  Not for the lack of anything that this beautiful place could offer me, but because I am going to do what I’ve always known to do – follow my heart. And this time, while this place has won a large portion of my heart, a little bit of it is somewhere in Denmark with a certain special someone. I couldn’t live here fully and completely in the present, knowing that I wasn’t giving it my 100% wondering and thinking about that little person somewhere else. So while it’s an official resignation, it closes only this one chapter with Costa Rica hopefully to be reopened and revisited for later. And in the wise words of Maria Del Mar, my boss – “You have more to lose by being here and you know, that Costa Rica and we, will always be here. I have always followed my heart as a free spirit and because I have, I want you to.”

OPEN AVAILABILITY: Marketing Director of Del Mar Adventures

I am leaving this AMAZING job behind and want to give someone the opportunity to take a pay cut, take on a bunch of work, move to Costa Rica within the next month, work with a tiny budget, ride their bicycle to work, live in a tiny house by the beach, learn to surf and work with the best team in Costa Rica.

So if this is you, click here for the full job description and shoot me an email if you think this is you!

Disclaimer: The person we are looking for in this position is someone who wants to join a team of passionate individuals who live to provide a quality business while having fun. We are looking for someone who is completely self motivated, a team player and can push the team to understand and adapt to new marketing trends. While the job is demanding, it is equally as fun. By working with a team that promotes surfing and fitness, we expect it to be a complete lifestyle change for you as well. While, the nature of your work is independent (work from home, mostly), there is a always a need to join surf trips, set meetings, attend surf lessons and classes outdoors to get content and understand the day to day business. And if that is not something you would enjoy, then this job is not for you!

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My Mandatory Surf Run to Nicaragua

Dec 7

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit, The Surf | 6 Comments

Angie Maria surfing nosara

The beautiful part about having a tourist visa in Costa Rica is essentially you are forced to leave the country every 90 days for 72 hours in order to return legally back into Costa Rica. While it can be an inconvenience to many, putting a hold on everything that is demanded of you, to leave the country to travel to another country (god forbid) – it is a good wake up call and reminder to relax, remove yourself from adopting a senseless well oiled daily routine to explore the other countries so close to my proximity.

For this tourist visa run, I am venturing into Nicaragua. More specifically, the tiny surf town of San Juan del Sur. Initially, I had decided to do my 90 days tourist run this weekend, so that I would have some time to plan and get ready. But yesterday, I was notified that we had a big group of surfers coming for the surf camp on Wednesday and I wanted to be back at least mid week during their camp. So as of 12 PM this afternoon, I decided this destination & booked my Ticabus ticket at the local travel agency in Jaco.

Angie Surfing Nosara

While I have the same feeling that I had when I first ventured into unknown territory back in July from Vancouver to Seattle, this feeling is a little different. I am still traveling on my own, with more unknowns (knowing very little of the Spanish language, completely different transit systems, absolutely no cell phone signals & now carrying a massive 6’3 ft surfboard with me) – I surprisingly feel more at ease this time around. Traveling solo anywhere is the same – you depend on the goodness of people around you, you learn to observe every aspect of your surroundings and you get smarter about when and where to go. With that said, if I don’t post to Facebook or Tweet about arriving in Nicaragua in the hostel by at least 10 PM tomorrow evening, please notify the local enforcements. I am staying at Casa Oro (pending availability) and they promised free Wi-Fi & Internet.

I am currently looking at a folded two-sided piece of paper with scribbled down notes from after talking with a few people about how to get from where I live all the way to Nicaragua, through a series of buses. I would have preferred to take a direct flight (snobby, yes I know) in the interest of saving time, but at least this way, will allow me to enjoy the view and truly practice my level of patience. Apparently, I will be waiting… alot.

A snippet of my “directions” from Jaco Beach, Costa Rica to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua:

  • Take the 8:30 am / 9:00 am bus from Quepos to Puntarenas (I live in Jaco, Puntarenas is the next town north that connects to the bus lines from San Jose to the border
  • Get out at the Hilton hotel
  • Ask them to call you a taxi to take me to “4 cruces de Miramar”
  • Get out at the Shell station (that’s right, there is no fancy bus stop or sign that says “Tica Bus here”, just a bunch of people on the side of the road. I better bring sun protection)
  • You will probably be here around 11:00/11:30 am, the Tica Bus will pass around 2:00 PM (Great, 2.5 hours to kill. In the sun. With my board.)
  • Once it gets close to 2:00 PM, cross and wait for the Ticabus, as they will not wait for you.
  • The Ticabus will walk you as a group to pass the border. Give your passport to the representative and walk across the border and meet them at the other side.
  • You will arrive in Rivas around 8:00 PM

Now this is where it gets sketchy. I have a few recommendations to stay in Rivas because apparently you don’t want to travel at night in Nicaragua. And then I also have recommendations to take a taxi from Rivas (the border of Nicaragua/Costa Rica) straight to San Juan del Sur because it is unsafe in Rivas at night and nowhere to stay.

Board bag

And because I only have a board bag for a 7’2 ft surfboard, I hope my make shift board bag for the 6’3 ft surfboard doesn’t get me into alot of trouble at the border – that is, if they ask me to open my bag to check what’s inside. I have a feeling I’d be keeping the line up unraveling this rope.

Nonetheless, I shall see what the conditions are like when I arrive in Nicaragua by nightfall. Hopefully, I meet some friendly taxi drivers, or other travelers, or maybe – I meet the Nicaraguan president by fluke who will invite me to surf on the breaks on his own private island. Who knows? Oh, the joys of traveling solo.

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Hola From Costa Rica – My first video blog.

Oct 22

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit, The Surf | 5 Comments

It’s been a month since I’ve been living in Jaco Beach, Costa Rica and wanted to write a nice long update about my adventures so far. But with so much footage and video work I’ve been doing lately, I thought it would be a better idea to complement my thoughts with visuals so you can see for yourself the beauty that is Costa Rica. In my pursuit of happiness, this is my journey to pura vida. Enjoy!

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Surf Lesson #3: The Washing Machine

Sep 17

Posted by admin in The Surf | 2 Comments

Surf Spot: Jaco Beach, Costa Rica

Jaco Beach Surfline: 3-4 ft. Light and variable west-northwest winds with smooth seas. Small long period swell from the southwest. 3ft @ 13s from SW (218). 1ft @ 6s from S (173). 1ft @ 11s from S (183). 1ft @ 5s from SSW (208).

sept 17

Board: 8’6″ NSP surfboard.

Getting waves, paddling out, wiping out and experiencing the washing machine is all part of surfing. While anything other than getting waves have less appeal, they have their benefits – whether it is waking you up while you’re out at an early morning surf or toning your upper body with constant paddle outs. Today’s waves were particularly heavier than the last few days, with more sets and larger waves. While I’ve always prided myself in being a relatively good swimmer, it’s a question of how long you can hold your breathe under water and hop back on your board as soon as the waves mellow out. But while you’re out in the water, depending on where you are, you have two options to try to get past the washing machine.

Paddling Out

The most important thing about always watching the ocean behind you is you never know when a wave is coming. Especially when it looks like it’s going to break farther back than you expect it to, so you paddle out as fast as you can to get over the wave before it breaks on you and takes you on a whirlwind of a washing machine ride.

Ducking Under

Sometimes you never get to paddle out or realize that the waves are coming at you faster than you can paddle out, so you the next best thing to do is getting your body and your board under the momentum of the wave above the water as fast and as deep under as you can. By staying on top and letting the wave take you and your board back, can take you twice the effort and time to get back out to the break line. There are several ways to duck under with your board that I’ll talk about once I learn them all ;)

IMG_1650

While I got hit in the head with the surfboard today, the only sensation you truly feel after your session is the one where you catch the perfect wave. Today, I rode my longest wave in and could care less about the pain of the impact. Tomorrow, there is a swell coming in and a contest happening right on Jaco Beach where I can watch all the local Costa Rican surfers do their thing. Del Mar Surf Camp’s surf instructor, Josymar Fuentes is taking part and has been for the last few years – here’s to hoping he brings it home.

Pura Vida.

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Surf Session #2: Right Board, Right Wave, Right Bikini

Sep 17

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Surf Spot: Jaco Beach, Costa Rica

Jaco Beach Surfline: 3-4 ft. Light and variable west-southwest winds with smooth seas. Small long period swell from the southwest. SWELL: 2ft @ 14s from SW (217). 1ft @ 10s from S (187). 1ft @ 5s from S (184). 1ft @ 6s from WSW (248)

sept 16

Board: 7’10″ NSP Surfboard.

nsp 710

While paddling out today was a little easier on the 7’10” surfboard that easily weighed 5 lbs heavier than my regular 7’4”, the speed of the waves definitely proved to be more difficult and I experienced the Costa Rican washing machine. One of the most important things you can ever know is to never turn your back on the Ocean, it can be fairly unpredictable and you’re always playing by its rules. After awhile you realize that surfing in itself is not just about getting up on your board and riding a wave. According to Paba, another Del Mar Surf Camp instructor – it is a science, right down to the chemistry and physics of the water, your board and your position.

Right Board

While it looks like many experts rock out the waves on short boards and seems like they can do it all the time or are using the same board, chances are they usually have variants of their boards for different kinds of waves in order to maximize on the experience. No sense in taking a board you are not comfortable with or is too rocky for you on larger waves meant for longboarding; or vice versa. Unlike snowboarding where you choose the board for your riding style (freestyle, terrain) and adapt to the snow conditions, surfing is a very particular sport where the water conditions are so characteristically different that the slightest change in board can change your entire surf session.

Right Wave

Watching the wave is probably the most difficult part about surfing. After 25 years of surfing, Paba can tell if an oncoming wave is going to close out, where it will peak and which way it will break or even whether it is even worth going for. This is probably the most important benefit of a surf camp – having someone tell you which wave to paddle out for that would be perfect for your position so you don’t have to waste your energy paddling out for one that isn’t worth the effort.

Right Bikini

For all the lady surfers, believe it or not, it can make your surfing experience all the more worthwhile to have the right bikini that doesn’t shift while you get turned over when a wave comes crashing down on you or when you are just paddling out. Having to think about your bikini often and worry about what is being exposed can certainly take away from focusing on the core activity of the day – surfing. I wore a string bikini top and bottom with hooped rings the first day I was in Costa Rica and suffered a cut to my hip from the impact of the board and was too concerned with the exposure of the top that I caught barely any waves.

Best part of today was right after my morning surf session, I moved into my new place right in the town of Jaco Beach with a porch view of the mountains and a backyard view onto the beach. For the first time in two months of travel, I finally have a place I can call home.

backyard view

Pura Vida.

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Surf Session #1: Paddling, Watching, Breathing

Sep 16

Posted by admin in The Surf | 8 Comments

Surf Spot: Jaco Beach, Costa Rica

Jaco Beach Surfline: 2-3 ft. Light and variable east-southeast winds with smooth seas. Small short period wind waves from the southwest. SWELL: 2ft @ 6s from SW (228), 2ft @ 10s from SSW (195), 1ft @ 5s from S (173), 1ft @ 16s from SW (217)

Board: 7’4″ Ward Coffey Surfboard.

Del Mar Surf Camp @ Jaco

With the notion that I was to hit the waves at 8 AM for my first early morning surf session today, I fell asleep at 11 PM (earliest I have in awhile) at my temporary residence at the Cabinas Rancho Grande, steps away from Playa Hermosa. But with the Costa Rican Independence Day (from Spain) today, Maria from Del Mar Surf Camp picked me up earlier at 6:30 AM to get to Jaco Beach and I got about two and a half hours of decent surfing time in with the nice long waves today.

What’s best about advancing with a surf camp is that you have a seasoned surfer to help you spot the mistakes in your riding, especially critical when you’re first getting into surfing. I met Del Mar Surf Camp’s head instructor today who is also sponsored as a Lost Team Rider, Josymar Fuentes who with Maria Del Mar gave me three of the best beginner tips.

Paddling

One of the key things I realized today was that while I didn’t mind paddling out so much and getting smacked constantly by water, I needed more strength in my paddle to actually get myself into the wave. Cupping your hand and extending it deeper into the water (“slow and deep”) made it seemingly easier to understand that paddling was in itself a technique to be learned and developed that is detrimental to catching good waves. Slow and deep gets you stronger momentum than frivolous speedy strokes.

Watching

As soon as you try to get up on the board, one of the first things you naturally do is watching where you put your feet. Unconsciously not realizing this, I was always watching where my feet were placed on the board rather than looking straight ahead at where I wanted to be. Just by looking up at where I needed to be and adjusting the placement of my feet if need be, I was able to garner more balance and stabilize myself on the board.

Breathing

Finally, after all the paddling to get yourself into the center of the wave, the first thing you tend to do is hold your breath and hope you caught the wave at the right spot sometimes overwhelming yourself. Just before popping up onto the board and breathing, I was able to think about all the changes I needed to make from the last wave in order to improve and apply them to the current wave without letting the rush of the water get to you.

And that’s it. First surf here at Jaco Beach with three waves under my belt. Tomorrow, I am up at 6 AM again to head to another surf lesson with Del Mar Surf Camp, move into my new house in the town of Jaco and get settled into life in Costa Rica for the next few months.

Pura Vida.

Jaco Beach Surfline: 2-3 ft. Light and variable east-southeast winds with smooth seas. Small short period wind waves from the southwest. SWELL: 2ft @ 6s from SW (228), 2ft @ 10s from SSW (195), 1ft @ 5s from S (173), 1ft @ 16s from SW (217)

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The Road Trip to Pura Vida

Jul 8

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit, The Surf | 8 Comments

The Route

roadtopuravida

Moving to Costa Rica can be easy. It would be easier if you took the traditional route and bought a flight ticket and shipped the rest of your stuff there. Instead, I decide that I wanted to see the rest of my country and unseen parts of the neighboring country below. Having my heart set on making this road trip across both countries, I knew I couldn’t go back no matter how costly, long, tedious or frustrating the research process to make this happen was and indeed, it was damn frustrating. So I thought I’d share my research notes with you.

The Problem: Getting from Toronto to Costa Rica.

Why I want to do this: Toronto is all I’ve ever known & lived. When will I ever get a chance to spend each day without the thought of deadlines, need to check emails, no urgencies, no consequences while appreciating the beauties of this world that is out there?

My Options (from lowest cost to highest cost):

    Hitchhiking

  • Pro: No money involved
  • Con: Uncertainty where & how I’ll end up
      • Drive Contracting (people pay you to drive their car instead of shipping)

    • Pro: Decent vehicle, get paid to drive it
    • Con: Don’t get to choose routes, inflexible
        • Drive My Own Car (2001 Toyota Corolla)

      • Pro: Don’t have to pay, except in depreciation
      • Con: Not sure it will make it as far as Florida in extreme heads, well over 200K in mileage
          • Car Rental

        • Pro: Not my car, unlimited mileage
        • Con: High rental fees, one way fees, liability insurance, protection fees, first born child fees, ridiculous fees
            • Have also considered:

          • Renting a car in Toronto and returning it in US – not allowed
          • Renting a car in Buffalo, driving it through Canada, return into US – not allowed
          • Renting a car in Toronto, returning it in Vancouver, bussing over to Seattle, renting a car and returning it in Florida – very costly and tedious process
              • Renting an RV/Camper Van

            • Pro: No need for camping (not sure if this is a pro)
            • Con: Ridiculously expensive, no one way rentals from Toronto
                • Flight

              • Pro: Saves a lot of time & cheaper than car rental and gas
              • Con: Don’t get to see anything 30,000 feet up in the air
                  • Train

                • Pro: Saves a lot of time while being able to see the sights
                • Con: Costs more than a flight and car rental for high speed scenery
                    • Buying My Ideal Car – 1978 Volkswagen Westfalia

                  • Pro: I sleep in the van & am the coolest thing around
                  • Con: I will run into more problems with this car then I can afford
                      • Buying Any Car

                    • Pro: Flexibility, payment leads to ownership and hopefully some salvage value
                    • Con: Extremely hard to sell a Canadian car on US territory – even if I bought a US car I’d have to import into Canada only to sell it again in the States (waste of import fees). Ditching the car provided just the same amount of dilemma

The Final Plan

So I’ve exhausted almost every option I could think of and I promise, for the purposes of this trip – this was the best and only viable option. Might not be applicable to everyone looking for a road trip adventure, but hey – with every road trip comes road blocks that require great problem solving skill.

Here it is:

I found a friend who is looking to move to Vancouver while spending his summer on an adventure. Then convinced him to take his 2008 Honda Civic with less than 100K on mileage on the drive to Vancouver, store it for a month or so in a garage & rent a car in the states when we get across (likely by bus). As soon as we get to the Miami International Airport, we drop the car off and grab the next flight to Costa Rica while he takes a flight back to Vancouver.

start date: july 7, 2010
end date: aug 20, 2010
approx distance: 8800 km

And now the journey begins….

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From DemoCamp to SurfCamp

Jun 10

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit, The Surf | No Comments

google_surfboard Colleague and friend David Crow put it best, this move has me going from corporate web surfing across the world to “real surfing” and ironically as I searched the interwebs for the perfect picture to represent just that, I found this. Conversely, if Microsoft branded surfboards and wanted to sponsor my surfboard for this endeavor, I would be more than happy to replace this picture with that one & surf the coast on it with pride.

Now, this move from one surfing to another, although sounds fairly similar, I’ve isolated a few differences. The benefits of corporate web surfing are abundant in that you never really have to leave your desk, you can essentially surf the world at the comfort of your own home and enjoy the sights of the sea on your screen saver. Where “real surfing” as Jack Johnson so elegantly demonstrates in his music video for “You and Your Heart”, comes associated with dangers leading to dangerously healthy muscular tone.

Albeit, I welcome the challenge the invariable way of life I’ve grown accustomed to my entire life. If the world is my oyster, why am I only swimming in my backyard? The world’s a stage and yet I re-enact the same play over and over again, the one where I know that I will wake up, likely head to work, face a few rough patches leading to working late, head home, grab dinner on the way, check a few emails, walk the dog, check a few emails again, check Facebook/Twitter, watch some TV and then head to bed. Rinse and repeat.

Where’s the active lifestyle? </Insert gym time here>
Where’s the social interaction? </Insert coffee/dinner dates here>
Where’s the relaxing time? </Insert vacation here>

All of which are temporary instantaneous solutions to a much needed lifestyle change. For a short period, I will feel relived, productive, relaxed – then the cycle of spiritual destruction happens again. Kind of like that marketing campaign, with a band-aid solution to get you through to meet your metrics for the year and to get your compensation. In the end, you haven’t fixed a problem it’s still there, just underneath a pretentious solution to make it through to the next milestone until it occurs again. But, it’s still there.

life wordleI’m going to stop covering it up. I am going to search crevices deep and wide to find exactly what lies beneath to uncover the internal source of happiness, no matter the cost. I am transitioning from a life and career that are socially accepted and expected successful milestones in this part of my life to one that possess notions of uncertainty, unconventionality all of which my soul urges in hunger for in order to define this thing I call, life.

Word cloud generated by Wordle

But why surfing?

Because of this experience that has allowed me to realize the dynamic power when the human vessel is connected to the strength of our minds. Yet we treat our entire beings everyday like garbage cans – filling it with junk. Letting it overflow until we realize we need to empty it but then it’s too late. It’s attracted the skunks, the raccoons, the maggots that have rotten right over the canister becoming one. It is with this gory amplification needed to demonstrate that we treat our bodies & minds the same way, defining both junk in the foods we eat and the negative interactions that infiltrate our minds. It is for this reason, I am prioritizing the one life, the one body given to me, to a lifestyle that will equally harness the gifts we’ve been given inside & outside our souls to grant myself the ability to live my life in the fullness I aspire to.

And what that, I leave you with Matisyahu’s inspirational, One Day.

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Goodbye Canada, Hola Costa Rica!

Jun 6

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit, The Surf | 66 Comments


Leaving Microsoft

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The series of cryptic activity on my networks has people wondering, what the heck is this girl up to? For those of you who follow my blog, know that in the past year, I’ve had a personal awakening that has in the least rejuvenated my passion for life and the things associated with it that I’ve always wanted to do in the pursuit of happiness. It is often that with the self imposed constraints on life and societal expectations, we somehow always find a justifiable excuse to momentarily dismiss a want from life or allow the fuel to dissolve. In the essence of my life, I have always strived for achievement, success, wins – until decidedly, I wasn’t sure if they necessarily belonged to me anymore. My success measures soon transpired from yet undetermined qualitative measures to quantitative ones. Yet, I would trade all the assets in my life for stories to tell, because at the end of my time – I won’t have my cars, I won’t have my accounts, I won’t have the things I spent my hard earned money on, but my memories, my experiences, what I did & how I lived in order to earn that dollar.

While I’ve leveraged the header from John Wood’s “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” – I have yet to discover what the suffix of the title would be that defines the journey in which I am embarking on. All I know is that there is so much we are mentally & physically capable of doing, but whether it is the monotony of life, added expectations or perceived notions of success – we continue our lives established on the grounds of stability and falter against taking the risk to do things that exist beyond our recognized boundaries.

Bill, I am Leaving

MWNW Logo2

I love my job, I love Microsoft, I love my web geeks. For those of you who have interacted with me within the community at events or online, the best part of my job is the flexibility it provides to foster relationships and provide value to the community at a rate that I believe no other company has created the focus to invest in. Leading and giving birth to Make Web Not War was one of the best experiences and opportunities I’ve ever had to create a community uniting web developers alike in creating the one thing we all spend so much of our lives devoted to – the ultimate web experience. So the part that makes this the hardest is leaving behind a group of individuals I’ve met in the last year or so, and the opportunity to learn more. So you’re asking, then why leave? Simple, it’s just too good. If I continued to stay I undoubtedly would have learned more, grown and have the ability to do so much more – to the point where the personal investment in the company would make it harder to give up and leave to gain external exposure, international experience. I recognize that while I have so much opportunity from within the company, much of my experience has been within the company and in order to provide much more value, I have the urge to diversify my skill set in an external and completely unrelated environment to grow as a marketer.

Return to Pura Vida

surfboard

As a snowboarder, nothing excites me more than being able to conquer a single plank board either on snow or in water to test the limits of what the human body is physically capable of. There is nothing a human body that cannot be done without the determination of the mind. A story I will always remember from one of my favourite books ‘The Peaceful Warrior’ is that Ninjas are not ninjas because they possess some sort of super human capability superior to other humans on earth – it’s because they parallel their mental determination with physical implementation. Young ninjas jump over cornfields every day of their lives scaling the height of the cornfields as they grow until it is no longer a challenge. You’ll never know you can do something until you try it, practice it and succeed.

With that said – I am officially moving to Costa Rica, the place I first discovered a completely different way of life encompassed in the magical saying of “Pura Vida”. Pure life (“pura vida”) is not defined by the success in relation to others as we often succumb to in the natural human interactions leading from game theory, but pure life in the form where your inner peace and internal happiness are by products of your own creation. Not a superficial attainment of an external source. Believing that the things you accomplish are creations of your own, milestones by your definition – and for me, that is being a hell of an awesome board sport athlete from snowboarding to surfing to wakeboarding.


Ultimate Surf Camp – Del Mar Surf Camp

Logo

And so, it could not have been a better fit than to return to the camp that made it all happen in November 2009 at Del Mar Surf Camp – that brought the experience of Costa Rica alive. I will be leading the marketing strategy for both their surf locations (Jaco Beach & Nosara) to create visibility to the surf camp from all international markets as the #1 surf camp in Costa Rica. With Del Mar Sur Camp, I am able to do employ all three things I’ve been yearning for – aligning myself with board sports, maintaining an active lifestyle and creating a ground up marketing strategy for the surf camp – which is still in start up phase. This challenge is one that I am excited for that will allow me to foster the skills in a foreign environment, promote a product/experience that I believe everyone who is anyone will ultimately benefit from spiritually and be in an environment that will allow me to cultivate my emotional growth.


Traveling to Costa Rica

delmar

In an attempt to make every leg of the transition a journey, I will be driving for most of the trip by car visiting as many local surf towns as possible. Starting with almost 4500 KMs to Vancouver then down the West Coast through Washington, Oregan, California, Arizona, New Mexico, across to Texas and then regrettably flying over most of Central America to Costa Rica. Ideally, I’d love to be driving through Mexico, Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaragua, but have decided to heed the advice of many friends and colleagues who have lovingly cautioned against it heavily; and with the recent news about the sinkhole in Guatamala, I think I can make up the excitement with a few more sky dives and bungees across United States.

I will be officially leaving Microsoft on June 30th, rolling out of Toronto on July 7th (after the Canada Day long weekend) and will be spending the next month planning and mentally preparing for this adventure of a lifetime.

If you know anyone along the route who is willing to give up a couch, looking to sell a slightly used and sturdy vehicle or just want a post card – comment below!  I look forward to hearing from you all soon and know that you will have your very own local Costa Rican tour guide when you come for a surf lesson.

Follow me on my next journey:

  • http://www.facebook.com/delmarsurfcamp
  • http://www.youtube.com/delmarsurfcamp
  • http://twitter.com/delmarsurfcamp

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