First off, very  happy to see lots of return guests at Swell in the next month.

Early morning sunrise at our local surf beach

Norm, as usual has brought the wind back with him; one of the luckiest men when it comes to picking the right time versus conditions in Cabarete, he’s back for the 5th time.  Daniel’s already here for his 2nd visit and right now is on the beach taking a kite lessons with Luciano.  Chris arrives for his 3rd visit in a few days and following him will be Joanne, Jamie, Pat, Danielle, Stan, Jeanne and also a lot of brand new guests joining the ever-growing Swell family. Everyone is welcome!

The surf has been good, consistent fun waves; ranging from shoulder to double over head.

We had some epic sessions at out favourite spot:

Morgan, our Australian client got a lot of good waves this day.

Martha, the excellent manager at Swell also caught some good right handers

And even I caught a few good lefts.

Now, not meaning to upset any of our North American friends, some more snow storms across the US would be welcome, as they often turn into a great North swell for us here in the Dominican Republic.

What else has been going here at Swell?

We launched the new website, http://www.swellsurfcamp.com

What other places can you find Swell:

on Google +:

https://plus.google.com/100365096369531562266/posts

 Facebook  fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Swell-Surf-Camp/162734790410280.

We won the 2011 Travellers choice award on tripadvisor:

Find photo’s of Swell Surf camp on Flickr

Or watch our video’s on Vimeo

Want to join us this season?

There are some some spaces open, but not for very long, so best to send Martha a quick email via this page:

Http://www.swellsurfcamp.com/contact.html

See you soon!

Well the summer is in full swing and it’s been a good one so far; we have been pretty much at full capacity at Swell for 95% of the time, with surfers, kitesurfers, windsurfers and paddle boarders, and the good things is that the conditions here in Cabarete have been great for everyone:

-Fun waves in the waist to shoulder high have been great for our beginner and intermediate surfers that go for lessons to Encuentro beach every morning.

-The Stand up paddle surfers have also been able to enjoy good SUP lessons in Cabarete bay.

-The trade winds are very cooperative this year with the last 2 months showing great winds for people learning to kitesurf and for intermediates practicing the jumping and other  freestyle moves.

-We haven’t had that many windsurfers in the last year but now there’s a few clients enjoying quality windsurf lessons at Cabarete Bay.

-We have a new Yoga teacher, who comes in at the camp at around 5.30 to do a sunset yoga session, which the clients really enjoy (I will try it in the coming weeks).

What else is going on?

Unfortunately for Swell our surf assistant Brock got an offer to sail around the Mediterranean  with one of or guests (that has been back at Swell 3 times already) so he took the offer and is now living the good life on a boat for a few months.

Martha our manager has been doing a great job in the last 6 months running Swell, and keeping all the clients happy, but since she hardly ever wanted a day off, she needed a break, and so she is off roaming Central America  for a few weeks, in the mean time Clare is running the camp again, which she really enjoys.

What else?

Norm is now our record holding guests with 4 return visits to Swell in 14 months, and we are confident that we’ll see him back in Cabarete doing more Kitesurfing before the year is over.

Fonzy our surf camp dog, loved by all guests, got sick a few weeks back, but now seems to be in full recovery.

Ok, that’s about it for now.

I’ll finish with a few pictures from Richard , a solo traveler from Holland who came to Swell for Surfing, kitesurfing, partying and every other activity we can throw at him has been making some xtremely fast progress with the kitesurfing lessons by Swell Staff memeber Luciano.

here’s some pics of Richard after a few hours of lessons

The wind forecast looks great for the next week, so don’t be surprised to see pics of Richard  doing some jumping before he leaves cabarete

Interested in joining us in the the Caribbean? Visit our website : http://www.swellsurfcamp.com

or join us on facebook: www.facebook.com/surfcamp

Hasta pronto

In no particular order:

1. The kitesurfing season has started here in Cabarete; the last few days we had great wind; 20 knots plus,  sunny skies and the semana santa crowds of the last week have all left the town.
2. The surf has been great too, solid waves in the 4-6′ range make for great early morning surf or SUP sessions at Encuentro.
3. Luciano Gonzalez, our surf and kite surf specialist once again won the Cabarete master of the Ocean competition, making it 4 in total ( he says he wants 10 title’s like Kelly Slater)
4. Our ‘new’ surf instructor Brock is still working out every day and looking very fit, his surf skills are also becoming very impressive, ( now he needs to learn to kitesurf, and maybe windsurf?)
5. The new huge solid oak wood table has arrived, and it’s a stunning masterpiece , right in the center of Swell Surf Camp
6. Clients keep sending rave reviews to tripadvisor about our place ( we don’t ask them to, and contrary to most other places in cabarete we offer no incentive for them to do so), see Swell reviews here
7. We have seen many return clients coming back for a 2nd, 3rd or even 4th time ( in 18 months of being open)
8. We had a couple that stayed with us, then moved to a what they thought was a ‘similar place to Swell’, after 2 days the clients came back to Swell, saying that this place at Encuentro was in absolutely no way similar to Swell, for comforts, vibe, quality and location.
9. It’s going to be a busy summer looking at the amount of reservations that are already in, certain summer weeks are already fully booked, so if you want to come, book asap.
10. Something new is in the making at Swell……more on this in a few weeks…..

The new table

Luciano with Swell’s windsurf rig ( is there a cooler sail in Cabarete? we think not)

Gonazalez taking his 4th Cabarete’s Master of the Ocean title.

Simple:

-We are the ONLY purpose built surf camp for and BY surfers in Cabarete

A lot of other places claim this too, but here’s our video evidence that owners and managers at Swell are really fanatical about the sports that we teach in.

Here’s Luciano (Swell’s sport manager) Kitesurfing

Here’s Jim (co-owner of Swell) stand up paddle surfing.

Here’s Jim once again, paddle surfing, windsurfing and kitesurfing.

So if you want a real watersport experience staying at a place where the managers and owners can help you with local knowledge, you know where to go to.

Oh, and here’s some of the recent tripadvisor reviews about Swell Surf Camp.

See you in the water soon (keep in mind to book months in advance if you intend on staying at Swell, we fill up quickly)

Hasta pronto

team Swell Surf camp Cabarete, Dominican Republic

We have more plans for 2011, but we’ll have to wait with the announcement of this news.

Meanwhile here’s some Swell Surf camp pictures from the last few weeks:
Renee surfing at Encuentro

New Swell staff JP and Martha

Swell staff @ a photoshoot wave kiting at Encuentro

Luciano hitting the lip, I think it’s safe to say that nobody does this better than him.

JP hitting it nicely

Martha having fun.

That’s it for now, have fun & keep smiling.

So here’s the rating for our surf camp.
Real clients, real reviews, none of that fake inflated stuff that a lot of other business have.
Contact the clients if you want via our facebook page.

We are very happy that our clients were happy on their surf holiday in cabarete with us.
So far we have seen clients return within 2-3 months to see for another trip, some of them have been back 3 times already, and we haven’t been open for a year yet.

What else has been going on?
Excellent surf in the morning, good stand up paddle surfing on the reef in Cabarete, and kitesurf lessons in the afternoon.

Even better, cleaner and bigger swell predicted for this weekend.

Hasta pronto
Swell Surf camp team

Starting on the 16th of June the PKRA Cabarete kitesurf world cup is held right here at Cabarete’s main beach, Bozo. I will be cheering for dutch world champion Kevin Langeree and Youri Zoon, Clare and the kids will be cheering for the English people on tour.

Another exciting event is the World cup of football, needless to say not taking place in Cabarete , but can be watched at all the local Cabarete bars on big wide screen tv’s. England just had a dissapointing start against the USA, Holland is up on Monday against Denmark.

What’s been going on at Swell in the last few weeks?

More repeat clients coming back, people that initially stayed with us in February and March have returned for more kite surfing,SUP and surfing so clearly these clients like Cabarete and Swell surf camp which we are very happy about.
Another good thing was that ,what was supposed to be a quiet month, May, turned out the be pretty much the busiest month we have had since opening 5 months ago. The rest of Cabarete town was almost dead and Swell had almost 100% occupancy with a great buzz and vibe going.

We have started the first ‘expansion’ of Swell: a new kite / surf storage room, so all your gear can be nicely stored away within the camp.

What have we been up to besides work?
-Drew (13 years) is really into his kitesurfing these days.
-Euan (10 years) is starting to learn the kitesurfing with Luciano.
-Clare is loving the stand up paddle surfing, and is also trying to squeze a few kite surf hours in the afternoon when she has time.
-I have been sharing my windsurfing kit with Luciano, we both really enjoy being back doing the windsurf thing. ( in fact I am looking for a good 5.2 wavesail so if anyone has a good windsurf sail for sale, let me know).

Next few weeks
Lots of clients coming to swell to learn kitesurfing, surfing, SUP and some windsurfers as well, so should be good if this wind stays here.
More cheering for the football matches and the kiteboard worldcup.
Maybe a few parties?

Join us in the Caribbean surf town of Cabarete

Hasta pronto
Team Swell surf camp

Luciano invited 2 of his kite friends, Moe and Calivin

Here’s some pics of this excellent kitesurfing day

From left to Right: Clare, Luciano, kalvin, Ken and my best friend from Holland Willie.

Willie and Ken getting ready for some good kitesurfing

Luciano showing of his new strapless kites tricks

ken getting “attacked” by the dogs.

Willie kitesurfing to cabarete

Our friend Coco also showed up at la Boca

The wind didn’t full cooperate, which is normal this time of the year, so the windsurf event wasn’t full finished, but that didn’t matter, the results that mattered where in and Swell’s own Luciano Gonzalez took the title righfully back.

I think there was no question about who was the best overall surfer and kitesurfer in the comp. Luciano’s surfing has been killer, ripping Encuentro’s waves every morning, taking spinning classes with Clare’s for his Fitness and stamina has paid off. Clear winner without a doubt.

Here’s some kitesurf pictures from him

More ripping the waves:

Congrats to Luciano
aspiring to be a Master of the ocean? Luciano gives surf and kite surf lessons here in Cabarete for Swell surf camp clients

Why is Cabarete learn to kite paradise?
-Warm water
-Steady trade winds
-Side onshore winds ( so you always float back in if something bad happens)
-Large beaches

When is the best time to learn to kite surf in Cabarete?
The strongest winds are to be found in Cabarete between March and September, however year round you can find at least 3-4 days with enough (10+ knots) wind to start kitesurfing.

Where can I find the best Kite surf school in Cabarete?
There’s a lot of kitesurf schools in Cabarete ( 10+) but not all are recommended, what to look for in a kite school?

So where do I go when I want to learn how to kite in Cabarete?
We work with 2 good schools in Cabarete, that have been in business for 5+ years and a solid track record for teaching kiteboarding in a safe and fun way.

Alternatively for if a clients at Swell wants to be taught by Luciano Gonzalez, our in house pro, then that can also be arranged. We at Swell kite school have the latest 2010 kites / boards helmets and vests.

More info about learning to kite surf in Cabarete can be found here. Or just contact us via this page

Oh and in case I forget, we at Swell wish Luciano Gonzalez good luck in trying to win the 2010 Master of the Ocean event , held at Playa Encuentro,.
He has trained and worked hard enough for it.