Posts Tagged pura vida

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!

Tags: costa rica, marketing, pura vida

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!

Tags: angie lim, costa rica, del mar surf camp, happiness, jaco beach, Life, pura vida, surfing

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

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.

Tags: costa rica, jaco beach, pura vida, surfing

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

Sep 17

Posted by admin in The Surf | No Comments

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.

Tags: costa rica, jaco beach, pura vida, surfing

People Are Inherently Good

Aug 22

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit | 1 Comment

As I sit here in 37?C degree weather in an unopened, unoccupied desolate campsite in Quartzville, Arizona it is the first time since I started the California leg of this trip where I have found the opportunity to seclude myself and my thoughts to recollect all that has been seen and done on this trip. I knew before starting this adventure that I would grow as a person physically, mentally and emotionally. First, spraining my ankle on a down hike in Vancouver with a 40 pound backpack, and climbing the rest of the 8 km despite the pain. The journey continued from Canada into the States as a solo traveler, venturing into the world of the unknown and for some reason, initial perceptions of negativity prevailed. What I quickly learned, was that people are inherently good. I want to share a short story from the beginning of my trip.

A Short ‘Explosive’ Story

On the long bus ride from Vancouver to Seattle, for the most part I was largely comfortable with two seats in the aisle all to myself. Until we reached Mt. Vernon and man with longer tangled hair, wearing a loose fitting shirt, jeans (and while this all sounds normal), his arms were covered in grease holding a circular metallic contraption with both hands down in front of his abdomen. While this may well have been a regular site to see, as a lonely traveler this of course was a little intimidating. Of course, of all the empty seats around, he chose the one next to mine. To be honest, nothing about his demeanour was off-putting, but the way in which he carried the contraption hovered closely bundled next to his body, immediately sent mental thoughts eluding along the lines of “Bomb? Wtf!”. I caught myself mid thought and decided that this would be my first test towards understanding the world with loving perception and so I did. Jeremy, was a resident of Seattle and was the proud owner of a Peugeot, whose alternator broke down on him (hence why he was on the bus), and found the most reasonably priced part at the junkyard in Mt. Vernon. Of course, an alternator. We spent the next two hours talking about our own individual journeys in life and what I should go see in Seattle and just like that, I made a new friend. A smart friend once told me, strangers are friends you just haven’t met. And from that point on, I truly believe it.

Without Cause

Whether it’s the compassion for traveling souls with larger than life backpacks that has people turning their heads, the confused traveler with the day pack holding a map at each intersection or the fact that I might look just absolutely helpless when I am walking the streets of each city alone – I have had so many random encounters and interactions with strangers that have truly restored my faith in the human population. Walked into a T-Mobile store to get a new US SIM card in Seattle and spent the next two hours speaking with local sales rep, Sarah – who also happens to be a large Yelp user and foodie, and marked along all the restaurants and places worth eating and spending time at. While looking for a place to stay in Portland while at the Seattle hostel, another traveler heard I couldn’t find any hostel beds and suggested I look up his family friend for help in which he made the introduction immediately. In Portland, while traveling with my new Japanese friend Yas from the Seattle hostel, a local woman approached us asking if we knew how to get to our hostel and asked us if we needed any help finding it. In San Francisco, I met Luke Kilpatrick on Twitter months prior to my arrival and as soon as I arrived, helped me buy my new surfboard, took me to meet the shaper of my board and took me to surf three counties in three days. This is just a quick shortlist of all the amazing interactions thus far on this trip. What is most profound to me is that while people are inherently good and help is always a question away, most of us might not be as receptive to it as we think we are when a stranger approaches us. Let’s face it, we are all a little apprehensive when someone we don’t know starts speaking to us. But, when you’re traveling alone, you take all the help you can get and allow for these interactions to occur – and when they do, they usually make the highlight of your day.

Tags: beautiful, humanity, Life, people, pura vida, travel

Goodbye Canada, Hola Costa Rica!

Jun 6

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

Leaving Microsoft

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

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

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

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

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 30^th, rolling out of Toronto on July 7^th (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

Tags: costa rica, leaving microsoft, pura vida, pursuit of happiness, The Surf

No Excel Sheets To The Olympics

Feb 14

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit | 4 Comments

inukshukolympic

Eating My Own Words

It’s almost been more than a month since my last post & I think I’ve eaten the words to my last post, figuratively. The average rate of my online activity has decreased, although I do still average to check it daily – I’ve been able to limit it to just once or twice a day. My conversations are richer, my relationships are stronger & my vivacity for life is so alive. The more I see, the more I do, the smaller my world becomes and the more I feel like I can do. Without stepping outside of your current realm of existence, one can almost feel that the oyster of the world that is out there is so unconquerable, far away, out of reach. When in reality, it is all so obtainable, so alive and eager to be within your existence if you allow it.

En Route to 2010 Vancouver Olympics

As I write this, I am neglecting to pack my luggage for a flight to Vancouver, hopefully to catch the energy that is the 2010 Olympics. I am leaving for a week & have never been more excited for the unexpected. The plane tickets I received were complimentary, and although my destination is defined, the journey is unexpected – and this excites me. For a very long time & some situations now, I am a very calculated person. The default function for any trip was to open an excel document & just start plotting dates against activities, against budget, against everything – just like the scene from Up in the Air where the young Anna stomps away on her keyboard building a plan made of lines and boxes to define a procedure for an industry she has yet to understand. One that might not even be defined within the constructs & confines of boxes & charts. For this trip, there are no excel sheets.

Defining Your Own Pura Vida

In the last few months, while I’ve continuously preached the greatness that is Costa Rica & the beauty behind finding yourself through pura vida – I realized that this journey is mostly mental. Finding pura vida is not the act of something (moving countries, traveling etc) it is a shift of the mind. It is understanding what is truly important to you, what makes you truly happy in your purist form & mentally reinforcing your mind throughout your journey. Many times – we fall and we forget, and then not before long, we realize we’ve fallen asleep in our lives – allowing external factors to define & overpower our inner voices. Find your own pura vida – strive to be the happiest, most honest, most truthful & forgiving person that you can be, at all times.

Reminders to Wake Up

Today, I want to share a few things I’ve come across the last few months that have inspired me in many different ways. My greatest fear is making sure I don’t subconsciously turn on the autopilot syndrome, living day to day, sleeping awake and stories & experiences are important for me to continue to propel forward. Hopefully they do the same for you.

1. Lemonade Movie – It’s not a pink slip. It’s a blank page.

2. The Art of Non Conformity – Unconventional Strategies of Life, Work & Travel

3. The Buried Life – What Do You Want To Do Before You Die?

4. Way of the Peaceful Warrior – A Book That Changes Lives by Dan Millman

5. How Do You Want To be Remembered? – From the filmmaker of The Lemonade Movie

Tags: 2010, costa rica, olympics, pura vida, reminders, vancouver, waking up

I left my heart in Costa Rica. Pura Vida.

Nov 23

Posted by admin in Life's Beautiful Pursuit | 10 Comments

Doin’ Costa Rica. Pura Vida.

Happiness is not something ready made. It comes from your own actions. – The Dalai Lama

The physical, emotional & mental turbulence in the last week has left my soul begging for more, raising the standards in my life for experiential living to elevate my pursuit of happiness. My life can no longer be lived at a mediocre standard & habitual routine when there is so much yet to be discovered. Right now, I am in complete withdrawal from my current reality because there is so much of my heart that I have left in Costa Rica. The pureness of life, the separation from materiality, the truth in love & openness of people have left me with a greater expectation of the beauty of life & what I aim to personally achieve.

Relativity

I have found that the greatest degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warm-hearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It is the ultimate source of success in life. True compassion is universal in scope. It is accompanied by a feeling of responsibility. – The Dalai Lama

Relativity is only as good as your context, your scope of perspective. The more I see, the more I know, the more I know, the more I am certain about life and what is important to me. My scope of perspective now includes that of the beauty, life and love lessons I have learned from Costa Rica. Where physical beauty of the surroundings have maintained much of their aesthetic integrity – so do that of the people who are locals to this, leading brand-less lives focused on pursuing a “pure life” embodying the national mandate for life “Pura Vida”. Everywhere you go, every person you meet, every sight you see – beams happiness & beauty to enjoy and create experiences that formulate memories. I can’t thank Maria Del Mar from Del Mar Surf Camp enough for her hospitality & energetic beauty on this trip that allowed us to witness Costa Rica in this way. In the generation of youth today – we are so privileged to have the ability to travel & see much more that allow us not only to widen our perspective on the way we live our lives, but our notion of possibilities. More than ever, we are empowered with the ability to achieve more, and I plan to make this my life’s mandate. I won’t stop discovering, allowing adrenaline to pump through my core & seeking new challenges as long as I live. It is only in this way that I can uncover the most beautiful things in life that matter to my heart.

Openness

Basically, universal responsibility is the feeling for other people´s suffering just as we feel our own. It is the realization that even our own enemy is motivated by the quest for happiness. We must recognize that all beings want the same thing we want. This is the way to achieve a true understanding, unfettered by artificial consideration. – The Dalai Lama

We often preach “don’t judge a book by its cover” but many times first impressions warrant reinforcing thoughts & stereotypes – but this judgmental filter is one that can be learned to avoid, because it is only in this way that we have the opportunity to discover the real person behind the superficial mask that governs our soul. In parallel, your work doesn’t define who you are, what you believe in and commit to is your truthful beauty formula. To be honest, under normal circumstances I would have not had the opportunity to meet the kinds of people I have on this trip because of the differences in academic, social & professional circles. But, my first observation was that they were all part of an industry that emphasizes physical beauty demanding certain upkeep in their aesthetic appeal, most – models of some sort. Had I maintained ascertain to the stereotypes, I would never have discovered:

The karate instructor with a passion for love, sense of humor, teaching & watching his students grow
The compassionate & lively actress from Sudbury with the constant yearning to help others in need
The motivated youth worker with passion for inspiring the younger generation to their potential
The aspiring student from Guelph with a strong stance for improving social economic politics
The fun loving woman from Toronto who only knew happiness & had an open heart for everything around her

Each and every person had a story, an open heart & adventurous soul that fostered and made the experience so much more fulfilling. Although, we were in the land that moralized “pure life”, these people were already so far along their way in exemplifying this.

Fulfillment

To conquer oneself is a greater victory than to conquer thousands in a battle.- The Dalai Lama

At the end of the day, I went to Costa Rica to challenge myself. This experience is part of a reality show for MuchMusic and the potential backlash having never been on camera before, the uncertainties in my involvement & the impact of the participation were the biggest fears I overcame & increased my level of physical & emotional endurance that I now define as the new standard for my life. I found myself challenged beyond the physical requirement, but mentally I’ve become more open to new experiences & emotionally I’ve learned to open up immensely. Now, everyday feels is like the first day of my life. Every experience is one that brings me closer to what truly defines my happiness. I can now ascertain that nothing makes me happier than pushing myself to sustain physical endurance – I am happiest when I am pumped with adrenaline & challenged to limits supported by my mental endurance. Knowing that my mind is just as strong as my muscle – I know and believe that my perspective on life is one that has certainly evolved & will continue to manifest into a definition of self that I am proud to identify with.

Doin’ Costa Rica

With that I leave you with a photo documentary of some moments & a Spanish rhythm, Suavamente from Elvis Crespo that is immovable in my mind.