At Swell we have always been keen amateur photographers, and have been trying to share as many photo’s of our clients surfing or having fun at our Surf Camp.

But now we have the pleasure to announce a new member of staff that is a very good surf instructor with lots of experience teaching people to aurf in a safe and fun way, but also has professional photography skills.

Here’s some pics that were taken by Joel last week

Awesome surf shots, don’t you think?

Want your shot taken by Joel? Stay at Swell!

Contact Swell  and you might have a poster format size of your surf actions soon.

Greetings from Sunny cabarete

See you soon

Swell Surf Camp, Dominican Republic

Surf lessons in Cornwall

Swell surf camp operates in Cornwall?!?

No, no swell in England (now or in the future), however we if you’d like the same level of quality surf lessons that our clients have been receiving for the last months in Cabarete, but you want to experience this in Europe, then it’s good to head over to Cornish Wave.

Cornish wave is a fully mobile surf school, based out of Newquay in the SW corner of England. The owner of the company is Jorrin, who has been giving lessons at Swell the last months at the highest level possible.

Besides being very professional with top surf equipment and heaps of local knowledge of the area, he’s also a very very nice and fun guy.

So for all your surf lessons in Cornwall,  go with the best, go with Cornish Wave!

Cabarete water sports camp

Ok, we are a surf camp, but that doesn’t mean that all we do is surfing, there’s a few other water sports that we offer at Swell ( and that we as the staff do fanatically ourselves).

Kitesurfing in Cabarete

Cabarete is know in the kite community at THE kitesurfing capital in the world. Why? Steady afternoon trade winds that are side onshore ( = safety)  and warm water and large beaches make it an ideal place for kitesurfers of all levels. There are a ton of kitesurf schools in Cabarete, but there’s some very big differences between them. Only the better and larger schools are actual IKO accredited  kiteschools with qualified kite surf instructors. We offer kite surf holiday packages with 2 of the best kiteschools; KiteClub Cabarete and Laurel Eastman kiteboarding. Interested in learning to kitesurf on your holiday? Have a look at the kite surf info here: kitesurfing in Cabarete.

Stand up paddle surfing in Cabarete

A relatively new sport, and we at Swell love it. We can give lessons, but prefer to pass this on to another company in Cabarete that has the full starboard and JP equipment available, just ask us.

Windsurfing

Ok not nearly as popular as it used to be, because of kitesurfing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an awesome sport. Cabarete has good windsurf conditions for beginners  to intermediates that like racing or intermediate wave riding conditions. We have equipment, but it’s not very beginner friendly so just like with the SUp we can point you in the right directions for lessons or the best deals in town for windsurf rentals.

YOGA

Just as what applies to kitesurfing , also applies to Yoga, there’s lots of instructors, but some or a lot better than other, we work with the best! We have a greatYoga instructor that gives classes at least twice a week at Swell ( want more Yoga sessions? just let us know). More info about our Yoga and learn to surf packages  can be found here.

Spanish

We are located on the island of hispanola, and Spanish is the language here in the Dominican Republic. We started offering Spanish and surf packages this year and it’s very popular. We can create the right package for you , regardless of you current Spanish speaking level. More info about the Spanish and surf package here.

Ok enough marketing talk, time for the pictures; Januari and februari we have been at almost 100% occupancy levels here at our caribbean surf camp, and that means the best vibe in town.

Ok here’s some of the latest news of what’s been happening in and around Swell Surf Camp; we had a great xmass celebration with a full house of guests and Swell Surf camp staff.
The weather has also been cooperating , fun waves rangeing in size from almost double over head to chest high which it has been the last few days. Even the Kite surfers are happy here in Cabarete since the tradewinds have been  picking up at around 2 in the afternoon, so when the surfers were all surfed out the kite surfers and the people that are learning the exciting sport of kitesurfing have been getting into the water. So everybody happy.

One of the new adventure tours that we have been offering the last few months to our guests is a canyoning trip with our friend and highly experienced outdoor guide Helmut from Kayak River Adventures. We only want to work with the best companies that we offer to our guests, so we did a test run with 10 of our guests 2 months ago to see what their feedback was; here’s some of the terms we heard when they came back with huge smiles on their faces:

“One of the best trips I EVER did in my life”

“Exciting , thrilling but always safe; awesome trip.”

“I want to go again tomorrow.”

“1 of the highlights of our trip”

Needless to say we  at Swell knew we had  found the perfect eco adventure tour provider in Kayak River Adventures for the Canyoning waterfall trip.

Check out their reviews on tripadvisor: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g317144-d2043428-Reviews-Kayak_River_Adventures-Cabarete_Puerto_Plata_Province_Dominican_Republic.html

Here’s some pics from some of the recent trips of Swell guests with Helmut.

So make sure to take a Canyoning trip when you stay  at Swell ( or even when you decide to stay elsewhere in Cabarete) with Kayak River adventures.

Hasta luego

Team Swell Surf camp

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Surf Camp Dominican Republic

Sorry folks it’s been a while since we posted something here on the DR’s #1 surf camp.

Let’s talk about the  surf lessons at Swell Surf Camp

When we started the surf camp 3 years ago, we wanted to build the coolest building in Cabarete for social & active people to enjoy their surf holiday in Cabarete. But the building is only 1 aspect of a surf camp, we needed to provided yummy fresh food, buy the best surf material for our surfboard rental pool, create a good vibe etc. But the most important aspect is off course the surf lessons, in the first few years we hired local surf instructors only, which was ok, but after a while we realized that ok wasn’t good enough, we needed to raise the bar. So in the last few years we have only been hiring internationally accredited surf instructors.

We knew this was going to cost us more money, but we also knew that it was going to pay off for us with higher customer satisfaction, and it has…….. the clients have been raving about our surf lessons here in the Dominican Republic, ( see the reviews on Swell Surf Camp on external websites like tripadvisor  and surf forums)
We still hire locals to help with the surf instruction, but the head surf coaches are all native English speaking ISA qualified surf instructors with Lifeguard certifications.
They teach the clients the art of surfing in a fun, quick and safe way. The other aspect of their job is to pass along their surf knowledge to the local dominicans so that in the future we can help them to also become qualified surf instructors. In fact a local kite surf school has also started an initiative to train locals the skill of life guarding.

So who is working for us at the moment?

Jorrin ( Jay)

A very friendly surf instructor from Newquay, England, whose passions are surfing and teaching people to surf. Needless to say he fits in well at team Swell. He will be at Swell until April 2013, and then he returns to his own surf school in England for the summer.

Ashley (Ash)

A mate of Jay, loves snowboarding, surfing and…. yes you guessed it…being a surf instructor. Fresh out of the  English weather, he loves being in the warm climate of the Dominican Republic.

With those 2 guys you’ll be in the best hands possible when it comes to surf lessons in Cabarete, they teach on the beach at Playa Encuentro, go on surf trips with advanced surfers and teach the theory surf lessons at the camp

Their surf coach  assistant and in house all round funny guy is Luca

Luca on the Indo board

He’s also rather good on a surfboard

So if you want the best possible learn to surf holiday in the Dominican Republic, these 3 are your guys at Swell Surf Camp

Right that’s it for now, off to the beach for more surfing.

Hasta pronto

Team Swell

ps: did we mention that we are the only school in the DR that has top qualified surf instructors?

Hi Folks

Summer was fun,  good wind for the kite and windsurfers and some fun waist to shoulder high waves for the surfers; but now September has come and it’s the start of the surfing season here in the Dominican Republic. We have been getting good waves here for the last week, mostly because Hurricane leslie ( now tropical Storm leslie) went on a northern track , passing the Dominican republic 100′s of miles north of us, and sending some great waves over this way.

Yesterday we went to Encuentro, the main surf spot of Cabarete, to take some photo’s. We chose the right day, since the water was as clear as we have ever seen it since the 8 years that we have lived on the island of Hispaniola.

The waves were in the head high to a little overhead range, so great for surfers of all levels.

Here’s some pics, ( i put a polarizer on the lens, so the water color looks even better).

The left at Encuentro had some nice peeling waves.

The little grommets are getting better every day

Swell surf camp client Charly about to get barreled.

The booking are coming in very quickly for the winter season, some weeks are already fully booked, so if you are thinking about joining us on a surf holiday in the Dominican Republic, my advice is, don’t wait to long to avoid the disappointment.

That’s it for now, we’ll go back to the beach tomorrow to shoot some more pictures of this great Swell

Take it easy & hasta luego

Swell Surf Camp

Http://www.swellsurfcamp.com

What’s going on here in Cabarete:

It’s summer time, so it’s hot, but the afternoon tradewinds make it a comfortable.

The waves have been ideal for people learning to surf in Cabarete, wave height is around waist to shoulder high.
We do the morning surf session at Playa Encuentro, we leave at 6.30 and usually stay untill around 9, so that gives plenty of time to surf untill your arms feel like noodles.

Summer time means strong tradewinds, so the kitesurfers have been very happy.

Here’s some pics that we took at cabarete bay of Norm, who is on his 7th visit with us in 2,5 years.

Norm kite surfing  Cabarete

Kitesurfing cabarete

Norm kiting in Cabarete, Dominican Republic

Summer in Cabarete

We also made a little video / slideshow of the good times people have at Swell Surf Camp

Ok, that’s it for now, remember if you are  thinking about going on a kite / surf camp holiday; there’s lots of Surf camps to choose from , but Swell is the #1 rated surf camp in the Caribbean for a reason.

Check our our website http://www.swellsurfcamp.com

Howdy folks

Ok, the facebook IPO didn’t create that many new millionaires, so to make up for that we at Swell Surf camp are giving a 20% summer budget discount to our guests that come and learn to surf or kitesurf.

Cabarete, Dominican republic  in the summer is a great destination, because, unlike most of Costa Rica, the summer here is actually one of the least rainy  season.

Summer has smaller waves, but for most of our learn to surf clients that is good news, waves in the waist to head high range make for a perfect learn to surf holiday.

So check out our pricing page to see the savings you can get this summer with one of our surf camp packages.

More news:

Amanda our new qualified surf instructor also is a very good photographer, so on her days off you can have your shots taken of you whilst surfing. Price: $30USD for a cd that documents your trip with great shots.

Yoga at Swell Surf Camp Cabarete with Molly

Weekly river trip

The Communal area at Swell

As you can see Amanda takes great shots, ( and is a great surf instructor)

So 20% off and you can stay at the Number #1 rated best surf camp in Cabarete

 
Oh almost forgot: we are very pleased to be the only accommodation in Cabarete to receive a Travelers’ Choice® 2012 Winner from tripadvisor.

How you all doing?

All is going Swell here in Cabarete on the North coast of the Dominican Republic.

We just had the busiest and most fun filled surf camp winter 2011/2012 season end. Not the best waves this season, (but definitely the best vibes). When we say the waves were not the best, we mean that we did not get many double overhead swells. But since most of our guests are beginners or intermediates, they got the best of the surf conditions, consistent waves in between the chest and overhead range, which is perfect for learning or improving your skills.

We are now in May, and the camp is still 80% full, so the social vibe at the camp continues. In fact the vibe has received a new impulse with some staff changes.

A new qualified surf instructor has joined Swell: Amanda, she’s 20 years old;  very very enthusiastic about teaching people how to surf in a structured, fun and safe way.

Besides being a great surf instructor she is also a very good surf photographer, so if you want a souvenir from your Caribbean surf holiday here in Cabarete, talk to Amanda to have your surf picture taken by her.

Amanda’s first client, Alex, was up and riding in no time.

Constant feedback to take it to the next level.

The next big change at Swell Surf camp Cabarete is that we have a new camp manager: Houdy, she will be replacing Martha, who has been with us for 2 years and did a great job, she will be missed.

Houdy has lots of experience in the hospitality industry, she loves cooking and gardening, so expect good food and a great looking garden upon your arrival.

Another new staff member is Luca, a young and very vibrant Dominican. He’s been with us for a month now and even though he doesn’t speak much English yet (he starts his English lessons tomorrow) the clients adore him, he’s very helpful and a great surfer and assistant instructor.

And the last change is Ashley, who will also be a member of the Swell Surf camp team, he’s a qualified kite surf instructor and will also be teaching surfing and doing guided surf trips when the waves are pumping.

Summer season is coming up, which means great news for kite and windsurfers, because the trade winds are very predictable for the afternoons.
This doesn’t mean however that the surf season has ended, in  fact summer is one of the best seasons for complete beginners, small gentle waves make perfect playgrounds for learning to surf without getting pounded by big waves. Also a great season for families looking for a safe surf holiday with their kids.

Oh and did we mention that we have low season surf package pricing in place between may and October? see the surf packages page here >>

Here’s some of the better pics from the last week.

Amy was a natural, taking chest high waves all by herself after the 1 week surf course

Dill is jealous since his new beach buddy has very cool sunnies.

Ok, that’s it for now.

Hasta pronto

Swell Surf camp team