Rich of Solace SUP caught up with our customer and ambassador, Erica.

She said "It's a night and day difference from our cheap sports store brand that we first purchased. Me and my husband fight over who gets to paddle the Solace board when we go out"

Erica does a lot of Yoga on her paddle board and wanted to way to get out on the water to explore and practice. She now has a floating Yoga studio with her Solace SUP Board. Also is very convenient since her and her family of four live on a boat. There is also a full blog write up a few post back of her experience with transition from a regular house to a boat on our blog. 

Check out the full interview below and enjoy!

We all have day dreamed and talked about taking a year to just travel or how about live on a boat right? Well Erica, a Solace SUP team ambassador, has done just that. Along with her husband and two children, they bought a 43 ft boat and transitioned to living on the water. They focused on uncluttering "the stuff" in their lives and started collecting experiences instead. Let's tune in with Erica and see how her family is making this work.

In comes Erica:

 I've always been drawn to the water. It gives me peace. It gives me happiness. We were your typical suburban family of 4 who owned a house and two cars. We were happy. We were content. We did, however, like to challenge ourselves. We were constantly inventing ways to push us towards personal growth. About 2 years ago we challenged ourselves to live a minimalistic lifestyle. 

The more we paired down our things and live simply the more content we became. Instead of striving to buy more trappings (a.k.a. stuff) we spent more time on each other and making memories.

The natural next step was talking about moving into a smaller space. We talked about living in a trailer for a few minutes then the conversation quickly turned to what boat life would look like. We had thrown around the idea of living on a boat in the past, but it was more of a pipe/retirement dream. Once we started seriously considering it, the more inviting the idea became. I was a stay at home mom and my husband owns his own development company and can work anywhere with a strong internet connection.

We pulled our oldest out of preschool after finding the exact boat we had been dreaming of on craigslist. We rented out the house, packed up all of our belongings and put them in storage. In the beginning of June we made the leap and moved our two-year-old and four-year-old onto a 43 foot trawler. It was scary at first thinking about all the what if's. What if we didn't like it?  What if the boys weren't safe? I'm thankful those  "what if's" didn't  paralyze us and keep us from loving or dream because you know what? None of them have proven to be true. We absolutely love boat life and the boys love it even more! Its non stop adventure for them. 

My favorite thing about life aboard is the slower lifestyle. It forces you live in the moment. The people we have been able to meet, so far, are incredible. We have an endless backyard at our fingertips ready to be explored. Almost every day we are greeted by sea turtles or manatees. The up close interaction that our boys get with marine life makes my heart happy. I am thankful we have been able  gift with this lifestyle.

Right now we are living in St. Augustine, Florida till march while we finish up some commitments we have locally. In March we will head to south Florida and then April make the crossing to the Bahamas. We will live in the Abacos till about mid June and then....the sky's the limit! We will move when we feel like moving. We will stay when we feel like staying. We have complete freedom and that makes my heart happy. 
Of course, my gorgeous solace board will be traveling with us wherever we go. I can't wait to try her out in the waters of the world! 

If you like what you read, please hit the share button below and sign up on our newsletter towards the bottom of our page.  Check out Erica's bio on our team page. We are all boat shopping now Erica.......thanks. :)

Fun video we put together on traveling through Costa Rica in our favorite spot Mal Pais/Santa Teresa. Check it out and feel free to share. If you missed our previous blog post, check it out for more detail information on spots we stand up paddled and quick tips on visiting Costa Rica.

Enjoy!

In this post, I’ll hit on some nice stand up paddle spots in Mal Pais, Costa Rica, quick tips to save you money and some of the activities that you might seek out when you check out this gem in Central America.

Costa Rica is one of my favorite spots and this was my fourth time visiting. I have mainly traveled up and down the Pacific Coast checking out the different beach towns and there breaks, discovering that each place has its own personality. By far, my favorite spot is Mal Pais & Santa Teresa located on the Nicoya Peninsula in Guanacaste Province. This SUP adventure, I chose to stay in this area the whole time and not travel with any of our Solace SUP fleet to try out different board shapes, volume and rockers. It's great to get to know the locals in doing this and getting some local knowledge on the best paddle spots.

This area has a lot of unpaved or crumbling roads with a dash of dust in your face, but I wouldn’t have it any other way! A quaint beach town with stellar restaurants serving sushi, Italian and local Costa rican cuisine that rivals any big city.



WHERE TO PADDLE?


Mal Pais is towards the south end and then you cross the towns city center or intersection which turns into Santa Teresa. Playa Carmen is a nice beach break and spot at that intersection area for beginners and intermediate SUP surfing. I also found a nice reef break in the fishing town of slow pace Mal Pais with help from Andy and his wife Edith from Freedom Riders and no one was around except for a few fishing boats. We ended up doing a nice ocean paddle tour with them and experiencing one of the best sunsets I’ve seen. I also was able to try out a few board shapes and rented a 9’ 7” x 28” surf sup for 4 days to surf Playa Carmen. I call this R&D and it is hard work but someone’s gotta do it, right?! :) If you are in the area, definitely check out Freedom Riders as the crew over there is top notch.

I also was fortunate to run into Marco Salazar with Costa Rica SUP Adventures located about 4 hours away while on the beach. I first started to learn to SUP surf in Tamarindo a few years back and Marco was the guy that helped me and had me riding my first wave in about 15 mins. Tamarindo is also a great area for flat-water stand up paddling and SUP surfing.

Marco was also a Costa Rican surf champion back in his day and has some good stories of top athletes that he has met from around the world. He and his wife Lydia are great ambassadors of the sport and if you are in Tamarindo, definitely stop by their shop right next to the Nogui’s Restaurant.

There are several nice advanced breaks heading north of Santa Teresa so depending if you want to walk right to the beach or explore a little, you’ll find what you are looking for in this area.

WHERE TO STAY?

Hotel Oasis-Great owners and small bungalows off the noisy center of town part but only a 5 minute walk to the beach.

WHERE TO EAT?

The Bakery- BIG ole breakfast burrito and a barista cappuccino
Mary’s- Farm to table goodness. Her farm is next door
La Esquinita del Taco- $10 tacos for $1.50 made to order

OTHER ACTIVITIES?

Horse back riding
Yoga
Diving
Ziplines
Catamaran sail/snorkel
World class fishing
Waterfall hike
ATV trail riding
Butterfly Farm
Beer drinking :)


MONEY SAVING TIPS:

• Do exchange some cash when arriving but in a local bank or Wal-Mart for the best exchange rates. There is a Wal-Mart right next to the San Jose (SJO) airport and most taxi’s take american dollars (USD) in the city. They bang you over the head with fees in the airport.
• Plan to have colones(costa rican $) when you are leaving the country as they do charge an airport tax or exiting tax. This was right around $18 USD and they will charge a hefty fee if you use a credit card.
• Arrive early when leaving Costa Rica as most departing flights seem to leave all around the same time and the exiting tax lines can be long.
• Have cash if you are taking the hopper flight to a destination as they do charge for over weight baggage and another airport tax. It was $2.50 USD arriving and leaving from Tambor airport. 
• Reserve a 4WD vehicle ahead of time as you get the best rate and they can be sold out once you are in a little beach town like Santa Teresa. 
• Don't leave any flops, shoes, bags or anything you don't want stolen on the beach or in visible eyesight in your vehicle. Even if your taking a quick dip, it will be gone when you come back.

Feel free to share your experiences or add anything you think I may have left out for this area. We will add a video real soon but for now, enjoy some pictures!

Next blog post will be tips for beginners on how to install and use various accessory equipment with your SUP Board.

Click to watch live feed replay above

 

Cape2Cape Virginia crossing 2016 presented by JMCM Channels and Solace SUP Boards kicked off on September 17th. The event paid out a total of $5,000 to first place winners in their category and offering up a unique challenging elite paddle race. This was the first year of the completed crossing at the Chesapeake’s mouth from Cape Charles, VA to Cape Henry, VA near the Virginia Beach area and the 23 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Categories that were accepted were OC-1, OC-2, Unlimited SUP, 14’ SUP Stock, 12.6” SUP Stock, Unlimited Prone, Prone Stock and Surfski.



The race was set to be capped at 50 paddlers for safety and ended up having 11 entries with 7 actually competing which was perfect for us to manage as a soft opening for a race of this caliber of challenges and for the racers as 5 out of the 7 paddlers received a $1,000 check! I think anyone who completes a 14 mile journey should receive a check :) BIG congrats to all the competitors who came out and completed this physical and mental challenge!



BEHIND THE SCENES:


The actual race course mapped out was 14.5 miles from course director, Frank Lundy, who has made the crossing many times on his prone unlimited. Safety was priority number one and event creator/race director, Jay Carrillo of JMCM Channels, pulled off a top notch event with 8 safety boats with experienced captains, 8 of the best local lifeguards and a safety plan to box in all racers during the crossing and pausing all paddlers if needed if any USA Navy cruisers or huge shipping tankers were to pass in the two major shipping channels that were being crossed. GPS tagging of all boats and each paddler helped with the safety during this process.

DotMotion GPS for each rider

I was brought on as a lead sponsor with Solace SUP Boards and contributed as an assistant race director/advisor. It was pretty amazing watching and participating with the 8 month long permit approval that Jay persistently hammered with a handful of knowledgeable advisors. The exciting thing is Cape2Cape Virginia is written into law so no more time has to be spent on government “red tape” and future participates can pencil in this race and plan training for something of this level and enjoy the stoke! I have a feeling that 50 spots will fill up fast for this event in 2017.

THE RACE:

Starting line at Sunset Beach at the The JackSpot in Cape Charles, VA

The race started from sunset beach in Cape Charles, VA and headed south under the bridge and then a slight turn heading SW with a straight shot to First State Landing Park beach on Cape Henry near the Virginia Beach side. Conditions were perfect with a little bit of wind from the east and swells were manageable at just 1 to 3 ft. at the beginning of the race. Paddlers had some wind at their back but still had to battle some gnarly currents making their first turn under the bridge around fisherman’s island and in the open water passing through two major shipping channels used by the Navy and huge shipping tankers. A couple paddlers mentioned a pod of dolphins hanging with them as they were trekking along. Check out just some of the awesome pictures from Douglas James Studio below. Visit his full gallery here.

I was personally on the beach at the Jack spot restaurant/bar manning the Solace SUP tent for registration and the pre-race meeting at the start of the race. Theo, from Dot Vision Motion, was part of the team coming all the way over from Lyon, France setting us up with their state of the art GPS tracking software. Each paddler, safety boat and starting line buoys and finish line buoys were equipped with a Dotvision Motion GPS system. This provided safety and a trackable course screen via your smart phone or your desktop to follow the exact position and speed of your favorite paddler. These are the same guys they use for the most prestigious race, Molokai, in Hawaii. Crazy how technology can be used! You can watch the replay here.

Making my way over to First Landing State Park Beach was about a 35 minute ride by car from Sunset Beach to meet the racers coming in to the finish line. This spot was pretty neat as it had a maze of RV and camping spots that lead out to the beach. WRV surf was offering demos on the beach and Coyle Solar had there silent solar powered generator for power. This was the first SUP race I’ve seen using this type of generator and is a great idea. I hope to see this at more events.

Awards were held back at the starting line at Sunset beach in the Jack Spot reastaraunt/bar. Perfect spot to celebrate with friends and have a meal with some cocktails while right on the water watching the sunset. Both Sunset beach and First State Landing Beach are family and spectator friendly. I would definitely recommend putting this one on your calendar for 2017 and experience this unique race if your up for a challenge.

THE RESULTS:


Congrats to all the participants as everyone finished! Big thanks to all our sponsors that helped make this event happen. Here are the results below:

Cheers,

Rich