Tag Archives: Peru
Fortunately I arrived in time to watch the girls receive their certificates for completing the first surf program for girls in Huanchaco. As each girl came up and was recognized, they would declare “yo soy hermana de surf” meaning I am a surf sister and then the other girls would acknowledge that. It was pretty powerful.
I can only imagine how stoked the girls are to be involved in this project which allows them a safe place to explore the art of surfing and to realize that surfing isn’t just for the boys and gringos but that they too have as much reason to be harnessing mother nature as well. As the ceremony closed it was time for us to shred. Myself, as well as about 10 volunteers marched down to the beach with boards and headed straight to the waves by the pier. The waves were perfect for pushing the girls into them. Most all of the girls I pushed were able to stand and ride the waves. Do you remember your first time riding a wave? I cant event imagine how proud these girls are when they stand up and ride one. I was stoked to get to help it go down in that moment. One of the best things in the world is being able to share this sport with young girls and show them that we belong too. That night I got the boards ready for the next day and went to bed early but not before witnessing one of the most impressive sunsets I have ever seen.
Saturday I woke up and it was go time. I headed down to the beach at 830 and started helping set up at the event. By the time all the volunteers were finished we had the beach bar looking super cute for the girls. One by one they started showing up. Also, two of our girls from Chicama, Randa and Gabriela, showed up to volunteer and participate in the day. Randa and Gabby are two of the original girls who were there in 2013 when we started the chicama girls surf team. Over the years they have been the glue that has held the team together while constantly recruiting new kids to the program. It has been a pleasure watching them rise to a leadership role in their communities and super exciting having them there for the event in Huanchaco. 
Promptly at 9 we started yoga followed by an on going beach cleanup. We had also set up the Firewire Surfboards so that the girls could do some art on them and make them beautiful. There were some pretty creative designs happening.
At 10:30 we all headed down to the beach to take part in the Surf Habilitados program run by Javier. There were a handful of kids who came out that day. Javier has been doing the program while incorporating local volunteers to get involved and help out. We setup the boards on the sand for the kids and the ones who wanted to mess around with them on the sand could and the ones who wanted to go out in the water got partnered up with several volunteers.
It was pretty cool to see the kids get excited about surfing. If you think about it…if organizations like Surf Habilitados didn’t exist these kids would most likely never have the chance to do a normal kid thing like play on a surfboard. There was one girl there who was definitely the most stoked. She never stopped smiling. She had issues with her feet and couldn’t stand or walk and every time the volunteers helped her up on the board she couldn’t contain her stoke. Watching her happiness made me feel alive. I was so stoked for her and I felt proud to be a surfer!
After Surf Habilitados the girls surf contest was on. We had several heats of girls shredding on the soft tops. It was fun to think about how a few months ago some of these girls had never even been in the ocean and now they are out playing in the waves with other girls. They have so much potential and surfing can be a catalyst for a life beyond their wildest dreams. That is exciting! The last part of the day was spent with the volunteers doing a party wave soft top heat where everyone got prizes for fun things like best maneuver, best wipeout, most stoked, etc. It was an amazing day with everyone. Stoke levels were high. The last few days of my trip I spent sick with food poisoning. I must have eaten or drank something dirty. I literally spent 36 hours in my bed while intermitantly exorcising the demon. Finally, when the sickness lifted I felt reborn. It was like a weight or a curse had been lifted. I was elated. Sporade saved me.
I did end up getting in one more surf session and spent my last afternoon relaxing and slowly made my way to the airport where I discovered I had missed my flight. It had left an hour before. Appearantly I had gotten an email update with the flight change back in December. Dang, missed that one. Becuase of that I ended up having to buy a new flight from Lima to Raleigh. I was not amused:). And as I write this I feel a sharp pain in my stomach. I think my parasite is foraging when it happens. Luckily, my intestinal cleanse came today and I have already started the process.
Peruvian Delights
Well Peru was incredible…as usual. On this trip was myself, Gabriel (the first STSF intern), Jeanine from Domical Waverider Surf Camp and her husband Andrew, Kerri Smith, STSF Board Member and lawyer extraordinaire and my biggest supporters, Neily and Anela.
This trip was already set to be one for the books based on the fact that I got to bring my almost four year old on a Share The Stoke mission for the first time. I was so excited to see how she would participate. It was pretty cool to watch and I will go into more of that later.
Like most times traveling to Chicama, we usually end up with an overnight in the Lima airport. Well finally this year, after all the years sleeping on the floor at the airport, I discovered there was a hotel attached to the airport that you could walk to. GAME CHANGER! No more floors, no more guarding bags while you sleep and no more security guards harassing you for sleeping on the floor and blocking walkways.
Leading up to this trip, Gabriel spearheaded a wetsuit drive with Nomad Surf Shop, a local surf shop in Florida who have always been very supportive of STSF. With their help and few posts to social media we were able to score over 50 wetsuits for the kids. This is critical for them as the water hovers in the 50’s for many months of the year.
Once we arrived we went straight out for a surf despite being supremely tired from waking up at 4am to catch a flight. The waves were super fun which was great because after that sesh it got super small for the rest of the trip except for the day we left.
That evening the Chicama Surf Team showed up and surprised us with a huge welcome that included a small kid on the team jumping out of a giant gift box and flossing. It was unreal.
It was interesting to see how the team has morphed over the years. Some years they would have all girls on the team. One year they had one boy with them. This year they had a few girls and a few boys. We got introductions from all of them. They are so cute and seem to be truly happy to be on the surf team.
My kid, Anela, was a bit overwhelmed by the whole scene at first with the kid popping out of giant box and firework type noise makers going off. I think she was confused about what could be going on. As time passed on that evening with the kids she became more and more interested in them and playing with them. They were all very interested in her as I don’t think they get to see, much less spend time with many light skin babies rolling through Puerto Malabrigo.
We had a few down days before the big event so we spent them riding tiny waves, playing with dogs on the beach, swimming, eating and socializing with the kids and other people we met on the trip and organizing all of the gear and supplies that we brought for the kids and Peruvian families.
What I was starting to notice about Anela was that she wanted to be a part of all the organizing and getting stuff together for the kids. She really loved helping and spending time with me doing what I love which is of course a heart melter.
This year we had two special guests show up to support our event and help out. One was Natalie from Groundswell and one was a local from Huanchaco named Javi. STSF and Groundswell have partnered up in the past to donate boards to the Groundswell programs in Huanchaco, Peru and in Cuba. Javi runs his own surf club in Huanchaco and inspires the youth there. We all had a nice lunch together before we made our way down the beach to do our giant beach cleanup. After it was all said and done we had a solid group of kids show up. Not bad for a late Friday afternoon. This year was the cleanest we have ever seen the beach and the kids were amping on getting out there to see how much garbage they could find.
After the cleanup was done we circled the kids up while Javi led the kids through stretching and surf lessons. The Chicama locals volunteered to help and pushed the kids into the waves. Also, we witnessed a record number of locals showing up and giving back to this event this year. It is a good sign and a good direction we are heading. I suppose the next step is to have them do this at least a few times before we show up and do our big event.
The kids surfing were doing awesome. You always get several kids who really show promise and the desire to keep going. Likely we will see them next year shredding when we return. After the kids got their last waves we ran up on the hill where we passed out a meal for the participants and a little gift we had for them. Of course Anela was elbow deep in the doling out of goodies. It was a great day!
Later that night we had a movie night for the kids and locals at Chicama Surf Resort. It was about the protection of the waves in Peru and how some had been destroyed. It was pretty good and informative of what can happen to our precious resources if people don’t become stewards and fight for them. At the end Jeanine spoke about pollution, plastics and how to start introducing ways to eliminate the use for plastics. She even brought some bamboo straws for each of the kids to start using.
The next day was contest day. This day is always the best as we get to watch the kids showcase their skills. They always show up big too as there is a lot on the line. We had three divisions all competing for brand new Firewire Surfboards and gear from FCS and Sticky Bumps. Andrew, Myself and Gabriel all got to be judges. Of course, Anela had to be in the mix too. She would shout out which color was up and riding…a perfect job for a person with young eyes.
Neily, Kerri and Jeanine all worked to run the contest smoothly and organized prizes and make sure everyone had water or food if they needed. At the end of the day everyone was stoked. Every kid that competed got stoked out with some really great stuff and as a thank you we were all greeted with Chicama doing its finest sunset we had seen the whole trip. 
The next day the waves came up a bit and we surfed in the morning and flew out that night. It was a successful trip. We donated 12 surfboards to the locals, 50 wetsuits, booties, shirts, boardshorts, hats, gear, etc. to the people of Chicama. We would like to send out a massive thank you to everyone who helped support this trip by donating gear, wetsuits, made a donation, volunteered their time or sent us good vibes on our mission.
One last note…I am so grateful to have been able to take my kid to Peru on a stoke mission. Peru has always been one of our most favorite places and when we go we feel like we are at home. I loved seeing her mix it up with the locals. I was so proud of her for getting right in there and telling me every time that she wanted to be a part of something that we were doing. It was exciting to see how confident she was helping out. Her vibe was like hey I’m Anela…I’m with Share The Stoke Foundation and we are here to make a difference!
I am so thankful to the kids of Peru who loved on her and played with her and treated her like family. Until next year…stay tubed my friends!
Passion In Peru
All I can say is wow! Peru gets better every time we go there. Our trip included Gabriel Mccorry, the original intern for STSF, Matthew DeMayo who has been on several trips now with us and Carlhey Bolz, the Peace Corp volunteer who helped start the Chicama Girls Surf Team.
We arrived in Peru after a 2am flight with a connection through Lima. I was so excited to show some new people a place that I have come to love. I was also very excited to get to wear a wetsuit, a jacket and real shoes. The Florida heat gets old!
The drive to Chicama is pretty surreal. The anticipation of getting to the iconic wave is almost unbearable. I spend the entire drive wondering what it will look like as soon as we come up the hill and get our first peek of the ocean. That, coupled with scenery you might find on the moon, you stay pretty entertained.
Our first day was spent surfing then getting a massive and warm welcome by the Chicama Girls Surf Team. In 2013 we helped start a girls surf team for some of the chicas who we thought might be interested in learning to surf. Since then they have grown by leaps and bounds. They started out getting pushed into waves and now they can all catch waves on their own. They are also super unified and look after each other and the team. They are truly an inspiration to us.
Saturday was the first day of our event. We were told to cut the event off at 100 kids because we couldn’t feed more than 100. I always hope the kids turn up and get really nervous before the event. We had the girls surf team there to help us and take a leadership role in helping us execute a killer day for the kids. 
We ended up cutting it off with 105 kids. I was blown away! We put them into bigger groups and led a massive beach cleanup. I am always surprised at how hard these kids work and how much trash they pickup. They just keep coming back for new bags until they are all gone. It is so cool. 
After the cleanup we had all the kids circle up for surf lessons. This is the part of the day that usually takes the longest with the number of kids we work with. All of the kids were so stoked to get their waves.
The smiles were endless and we were pumped for them. Soon after the kids chowed down on some tasty BBQ. As they got their food the girls surf team passed out the swag we had gotten donated from local companies by us in Florida. This trip we had donations from Camila Swimwear, Corey Hudson, Casual Starfish, Ron Jon Surf School, Blue Water School of Surfing and Grom Social. It was a great day.
Usually on the Sunday of our trip we put on a surf contest for the kids who are surfing pretty well. This time around we had about 50 kids come to compete. Each division winner would receive a new Firewire Surfboard with FCS gear and Sticky Bumps wax. It took us about seven hours to get it done but by the end we had the three surfboard winners and all the runners up. The kids were so happy to win boards and we were happy to give them away.
Our Monday turned out to be an epic day for great reason. We had decided that we wanted to do something special for the girls surf team so we decided to take them on a field trip to surf a new break and then to take them to Huaca El Brujo, an archaeological site built by the Moche sometime between AD 1 and 600.
We told them to be at our hotel at 630am for a 7am departure. This was certainly not the day to be running on Peruvian time (usually an hour late). As soon as they came, the bus came for all of us and we started packing the boards in which ended up taking quite a while to get them organized well enough to fit 10 people. 
On the way to Huanchaco we all played music and sang in anticipation. To get to Huanchaco it took us an hour. None of the girls we brought had ever been here which seems odd to us Americans being that it is only an hour away. This made the trip that much cooler and meaningful for them.
After we arrived we unpacked the bus and got all our gear ready for our surf session. There were some overhead sets for sure and some of the girls were intimidated but they all paddled out into the waves. Only a few of the girls made it out back for the set waves. Since most of them stayed inside I paddled in to be with them while Matthew was out there with Gabby, one of the top surfers on the team. At one point I got out and was walking up the beach when I looked out the back and saw Gabby on seriously the wave of the day. It was well over her head and she was high-lining down the face. I was blown away. I was so proud of her. It was like seeing my own kid catch a wave like that. I felt like my heart was going to explode!
After our sesh we took them to lunch. It was really fun interacting and getting to spend quality time with them. We all ate chicken plates and lomo saltado, a Peruvian dish that I had many times.
Soon enough we headed to El Brujo to check out the ruins. The part about this leg of our field trip that was so cool was because the girls got to see the actual mummy of Seniora de Cao, a high-ranking ruler of the Chicama district that was found only 10 years ago. She was discovered wrapped in many layers of cloth, highly tattooed, found with ceremonial items as well as weapons and jewelry. I think for young girls to see that women are leaders, especially in the Chicama district, must give them a sense of confidence and pride. To be there to witness this day was and will be a memory that I will hold on to for a lifetime. What a gift it is to be able to give the girls our time and love. I am honored!
The rest of the trip we were able to donate the rest of the surfboards for a total of 12, surf, relax, eat some rally good food and have a sad goodbye with our friends at Chicama. It was an amazing time and it is more clear now than ever that we need to keep coming back to Chicama. Our work there has been great but we are not done and the girls need someone to count on and we can do that for them. We are blessed to receive their love!
Posting Up In Peru
Well the official 2015 stoke season is underway. We just returned from a quick trip to Peru to drop off some equipment, give a surfboard repair clinic and meet with the Chicama Girls Surf Team for motivational talks.
My partner for this trip was Logan Kamen. Logan seemed like the ideal person to take based on his vested interest in the Chicama kids. Last year in a plea to the public on social media we asked for help with getting used wetsuits donated for the Peruvian kids. Logan stepped up and stepped up big. He reached out to all of his local surf shops in Jersey and was able to set up drop boxes for people to donate their used wetsuits. We were stoked to see what this…at the time…12 year old kid could rally his people to donate. A month or so later he and his family came to Florida to meet their family and we had the chance to meet this young man and his mom. Right off the bat we knew we loved him for his big heart. He had toted a huge suitcase chock full of kids wetsuits. 
We were stoked! His mom told us they had lots more wetsuits but that they would ship them later before the trip. After it was all said and done we ended up taking over 200lbs of westuits for the kids of Chicama. We had a few locals here make donations but the majority of the neoprene came from Logans’ efforts. We were impressed.
The day came for travel and Logan and I were stoked! His family dropped him off at the house about 9:30pm. Our flight wasn’t until 2:00am so we had lots of time to pack up the gear for the girls surf team. As an FYI…we will not be taking the 2:00am flights again…are we crazy:) 
We made the trek across the sky and eventually landed in Trujillo, a town about an hour from Chicama. I was so excited to bring this grom on the trip to meet the girls but also because I knew the waves were going to be PUMPING!
As soon as we turned the corner and saw the ocean in Chicama our eyes lit up like it was Christmas. I have never seen such long lines and they just kept coming and kept coming. It was like a dream.
Because we traveled all night I needed a little coffee to kick start the body into surf mode. Needless to say we soon ventured out with one goal in mind…getting the longest rides of our lives. And we did. The waves were dreamy walls that were never ending. By the end of the day we were beat so we had some dinner and went to sleep as soon as possible.
The next day the waves were even better than the first.
So we surfed two sessions and prepared that evening for the next days event with the girls. We had agreed to meet at Luis’ house to do the surfboard repair clinic and motivational talks with the girls. One by one, the girls showed up…not quite on time. I suppose we were on Peruvian time which I think means show up about 30-45 minutes late:) This usually doesn’t bode too well back home but sometimes you just have to go with the flow:) We had brought with us ding repair kits (poly and epoxy and some sun cure). We taught them the difference in boards and when to use which kit. Logan demonstrated how to mark off the ding area, sand it, mix the materials and fix the ding.
It was pretty cool to see the ingenuity they had accessed to fix all the previous dings. Luis showed us some of them and we asked what materials were used and it was rubber and super glue. It was a solid fix but now they are set with proper materials for some time to come.
After the ding repair classes we all headed to the beach for some surf. It was awesome to see how much the girls have improved in such a short time. You can certainly palpate the confidence these girls exude because of their participation in the surf team. 
Getting to spend time with the girls is a blessing. They are always so thankful for our time and the gifts we bring. It is funny because we never know who is getting more out of this. For us, our time with them is precious. We do it because we want them to know that they matter and that they are important to us. And in doing this…we learn so much from them about life, culture, priorities and what family means.
After our sesh with them they requested that we come back tomorrow and eat candy on the beach with them and surf. Of course we couldn’t say no to an offer like that. 
We spent our last few hours with them shredding the waves and munching on Peru’s finest cavity makers:) No one wanted to leave. We kept stalling. Eventually we knew we had to go because our flight was later that night and we needed to pack. We hugged all the girls and told them our intention was to return in August. It was sad to say goodbye but knowing that we are headed back soon left us feeling alright.
Logan and I headed to the airport for our midnight flight. We then proceeded to sleep on the airport floor in Lima for the next six hours (again…won’t be pulling these silly stunts again. At least one of us is not 13 anymore). We made our way to Bogota and then back to Miami. It was lots of layovers but it was all worth it. To experience the Chicama Girls Surf Team love is priceless and it was all worth it.
Ciao for now sleepy little Chicama!
Peru and the Crew!
Peru is bueno! We just got back and we are so inspired by the people we met on our trip. Besides the people we were blown away by the fact that the Nothern part of Peru was so dry and desolate.
Talk about wide, open spaces. It was such a nice change from what we are used to. Prior to traveling we had teamed up with Chicama Surf Resort and Carlhey Bolz, a Peace Corp. ambassador for Peru. The crew for this trip was Melissa Diamond of Surf Sisters and Water Women based in Cocoa Beach and Joan Bergmans, co-owner of Mono Loco Surf School in Bocas del Toro, Panama and Kelly Kingston of STSF. We all met in Bocas del Toro this past January on our very first stoke mission. Since then STSF has gotten to work with Melissa a few times at some of our local surf events but haven’t seen Joan since January. We were all looking forward to the sweet reunion. This stoke mission was perfect because we had three of the most stoked women who love to share surfing on board to make it happen.
Soon after we arrived at the surf resort we were introduced to the key players and we had a meeting that evening with Carlhey Bolz from the Peace Corp, Rose Bolz, and Ralph and Junior from Chicama Surf Resort to discuss the big beach event for the kids. We came up with a solid plan and we were all stoked for the event to get started.
We were warned about the weather playing a major factor in the number of kids that would show up for the event. It gets really cold in Peru not to mention the water temp is about 64 degrees. We were also warned that the kids would probably not be on time and they would probably arrive at 12:30 not 12:00. We had expected a maximum of 30-40 kids for the event. When we woke up the sun was already out and shining bright. It was going to be a beautiful day.
Our crew went down to Malabriga Surf School to set up at 10:30 and there were already about 20 kids hanging around waiting for the event. We were stoked! They all greeted us with hugs and kisses.
We knew that this day was going to be amazing. We got our chores done and started up an impromptu soccer game with the kids who arrived early. It was pretty cool watching all the kids participate. We even started a little group for the girls who were a bit more shy to kick a ball around and interact.
Kids just kept on arriving and before we knew it we had 100 kids ready for the event. Trying to keep track and count all these little bodies was quite interesting but we figured out a system that would tell us which kids were there and participated in the beach cleanup. We made sure those kids were the first ones to enjoy a delicious BBQ after the clean-up. We had all of them working together, collecting trash, plastics and cans from Chicama’s Beach. 
There is a major disconnect in Peru about keeping places free from trash. Some of our volunteers had to explain that it was okay to keep sticks, rocks and shells on the beach and that we had to put only items that are not natural in the bag for disposal. It is wild to watch people just take their trash and throw it out the window or on the beach. This is why it is important for us to get to educate the younger generation and explain to them the problems pollution and trash causes. We taught them to protect their playground and don’t destroy what they came to enjoy.
After the cleanup we decided to go ahead and have the kids enjoy the delicious BBQ. The guys who volunteered to cook did an amazing job. They had to keep calling out for people to go and get more chicken since we only planned on having 30-40 kids.
After an hour or so all the kids were full and ready to hit the water. We thought for sure we would lose some of the kids after the food but they all hung around for the best part of the day; the surf lessons. Junior Canchumanya Maxuca of Chicama Surf Resort led the kids through the surf theory, explaining to them about how to pop-up on your board.
We had him in the center of a gigantic circle with kids everywhere so that he could easily be seen. Finally after the instruction it was time to get into the water with the kids. We had five instructors in the water and all the kids were lined up on the beach for their first lesson. It was a well-oiled machine. Each kid got at least two waves and then the next kid would run down for their two waves.
The kids even tried to fool us and get back in line for more waves. We were on to them☺ We wish we could have given every kid 10 waves but we couldn’t. As you can see in the pics the kids didn’t have any wetsuits so they were in the cold water but didn’t care because they were surfing. It took over an hour and half to get all the kids surfing the waves and it was so awesome to see their faces and smiles. Some kids stood and some fell. Both were so entertaining to watch. After the surf lessons went down it was time to give out the Firewire Surfboards to the kids. The kids that were chosen were kids that were in school and leaders amongst their peers. We gave eight boards out to kids there and they were so stoked to finally have their own real surfboard.
We love stoking out kids with boards. We left the event feeling so amazing and grateful for the opportunity to get to work with these kids. They were AWESOME! We were exhausted that night but at the same time stoked that we would get to surf with them the next day.
We met back over at the surf school at 10 am on Sunday. The kids were swarming and happy to see us again. It was a super nasty day out and cold. Luckily we had brought five wetsuits to donate to the kids and they definitely needed them. Some of the suits were way too big for the kids but they made it work. It was pretty cute. If you are traveling to Chicama any time soon or ever for that matter, please take wetsuits with you to donate. The cold water keeps kids out of the water there. After all the kids got suited up in the wetsuits it was time for a fun surf. The kids that we gave boards to had obviously surfed before and showed us their moves. 
Some would go out to the big break and catch some of the bombs while others would stay in close with us and let us help them get into waves. It was so fun to be in the water with them as they were all trying to impress us and do their best. After a couple of hours the kids got cold so we went on back to the surf school to warm up. Getting to surf with the kids is always the highlight of every trip.
The rest of the trip we spent surfing and spending time in town. It was pretty awesome and we felt like celebrities. Everywhere we went we knew someone and would huddle in the street and talk story. We always seemed to run into the kids while we were out and they always greeted us with kisses on the cheek.
We all felt so at home and were treated like family at the Chicama Surf Resort. Before we had even left we were planning our 2014 stoke mission back. The last day we were all a bit sad knowing that we had to catch a plane at midnight that night so we decided to get a last evening surf session on. On our 20 minute walk to the point Kelly managed to stubb her toe on a rock and break it. There were no tears shed just some painful grimaces. Being that we were so far away from the resort the only way to get back was to paddle out and catch a ride back down. Our plan was to all catch rides down so that we could help her out of the water and get a ride up. We were in the lineup for about 30 mins when Kelly disappeared. After we all met on the beach she talked about catching the longest ride of her life on her stomach. She was stoked! We called for help and a rickshaw came barreling down the beach to get her.
They loaded her up and hauled her off to the doctor to get some help with the toe. Talk about going out in style. We caught a few more waves and then went and packed it all up to close out our Peru stoke mission. If one word could describe the trip I think it would have to be FAMILY.
Before we knew it we were back home.
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