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

A typical day at Swell:
Every morning our clients get up at 6.00 ( if they want), have a quick snack and fresh coffee to go, head to Encuentro for surf lessons by Luciano, who by now is one of the best and most experienced surf instructors at Encuentro beach.
Surf lessons take about 2 hours, and the experienced surfers grab a surfboard from our 35+ range of boards. At around 10.00 everybody is back at the Surf camp for more fresh coffee and a super healthy and big breakfast at the camp.
For breakfast our clients have the choice of:

Or all of the above!
Some people will just keep on eating…and that’s fine..we don’t want anyone to go hungry.

After the breakfast people chill for a while, play some table tennis or pool and then head back for a second surf session or surf lesson.

The last few days there has been absolutely no wind ( sorry kite surfers) but the people that want to learn Stand up paddle surfing (SUP) have been very happy. Conditions for learning this exciting new sport have never been better: super glassy and small and gentle waves in Cabarete bay’s reef ( deep enough , so no danger).

Swell Co-founder Clare has really been making big progress in the SUP department: catching long rides and having a blast.

We at Swell have the best SUP boards for beginners and experts surfers in Cabarete:
3 x large 11′+boards, for learning the SUP basics.
1 x 9′6” Mctavish allround waveboard
1 x 8′5” Starboard pocket rockets for shortboard style SUP surfing for the people with experience.

and..
More boards on the way.

Anyway….back to a typical day at Swell……..
For the people that want to do other activities, Cabarete has plenty to offer:
- Canyoning
- Wake boarding
- Spinning
- Yoga
- Horse riding
- Mountain biking
- Enduro dirt bike tours

Dinners at Swell are usually a group event: Go to a local restaurant ( at least 10 good restaurants within 5 minute walk) and a few times per week we cook food for the clients at Swell in the camp itself.
In the evening for those that still have any energy left over it’s party time in Cabarete, until……well as late (or early) as you want.

Party on the beach in Cabarete is legendary: chill vibe, flip flops, merengue, salsa, regeaton, locals, tourists, expats & everybody having a good time together.

• Steady tradewinds in the months between April and September
• For all level of windsurfers ( flat water and light wind in the morning, bump and jump conditions in the middle of  cabarete bay and the reef for wave riding and serious jumps for the advanced windsurfers.
• Abundance of good windsurf schools
• Great wind surf rental businesses
• Safe, no rocks or shallow reef
• Side onshore winds: something breaks you’ll come in safely
• Warm water and waves.

20 years ago windsurfing was all I ever wanted to do in life, things changed, I started surfing , then kitesurfing but recently I find myself more often on a windsurfer then with my kite surf equipment. Windsurfing remains a very challenging, physical and great sport.

The last 2 days I have been enjoying some superb windsurfing in cabarete with my newly assembled ‘old’ equipment. Solid 20 knots wind and some shoulder high waves made a great arena for practising my jumps and wave riding again.

So if you are into windsurfing and have nevere been to cabarete, come and check it out the summer, you will not be dissapointed.

Here’s some pics taken around Cabarete recently.

Windsurfer doing a frontloop at Encuentro

Windsurf equipment ready for usage at the master of the ocean in Cabarete

Another frontloop by a windsurfer at Encuentro

Oh and if you are coming to cabarete this summer, we have a purpose built hotel for windsurfers a few minutes walking distance to the windsurf beaches of Cabarete

More info at Swell Surf camp cabarete, budget accommodation for surfers, kite surfers and windsurfers

See you on the water

Expect a lot more photo’s from the clients who are going to be staying at Swell in the next couple of weeks, since we just got our new big 400 MM Canon lens today, and the first batch of pics are looking very promising.

Clare and myself love taking pictures, and when there’s half descent surf we will be at the beach at Encuentro taking pictures of our clients who are staying with us this winter. Speaking of which, the reservations are coming in very very quick and as a result very soon we will be full for a whole bunch of weeks, so if you are thinking about staying at our hotel in Cabarete, make sure you make your reservation ASAP.

Ok, here’s the first few pictures shot with the new canon lens.

Here’s the sign that my parents made for our surf camp. I think it looks great ( I hope they didn’t look at a picture of me surfing when they designed it, since the surfers’s style is uuuuuhhhmmmm ‘interesting’)

Here’s a picture from 500 metere distance looking towards Happy surf’s kite surf school in Cabarete

Picture of the garden at Swell Cabarete surf camp

Mats the birthday boy, (who also happens to look scarily like Jack Johnson)

Last but not least , here’s Cam, he might pretend to be a mean bad ass on this picture but in reality he is a super friendly chap from Canada.

Hope you’ll come back soon here to see the surf action shots taken at Encuentro, (or better book a stay with us and have your pic displayed here

have a good day
Hasta Pronto
Swell surf camp team

This morning the left at Encuentro was working, since there’s a a bit of North in the swell.
Clare went to take some shots, with great results.

Here’s some of the better ones.

Should be a good few days of surfing here in Cabarete or all along the north coast of the Dominican Republic.
And later this week….more pics of the Swell Surf Camp hotel

Today, we will be going back for more planting - 5 more Royal Palms and 2 Coco Palms will arrive this afternoon and then later, we meet with a lighting specialist to see what special effects we can make for the lighting of the pool and the gardens.

We had a few huge swells that were still rideable by the brave few.

Now summer is coming up, and that should still bring in some good surf here in Cabarete, it’s mostly Encuentro that picks up the best waves.

The other thing that Clare and myself are going to be doing a lot this summer is stand up paddle surfing: We tried it a few weeks ago, right here in the bay of Cabarete, and it was magic. The waves are so perfect for it here, the water level at the reef is nice, since it’s deep, which is good so you don’t get hurt when you inevitably fall off on the inside. Also because the reef is deeper here in the bay, it makes the waves roll more gently, which is perfect for catching smooth rolling waves on your SUP.

The new Swell Surf Camp website is now online and can be seen here , and we thought we’d add a blog to keep you up to date on everything that is Swell Surf Camp related, like the construction (for now) special events, special prices, pictures etc.

• Construction on Swell Surf camp was started about 8 weeks ago, and the progress that the builder has made so far is phenomenal. They are basically putting the first floor roof up this week.
• Since the launch, our website has “won” 2 web design awards from CSS drive and Unmatched Style which I , as the designer, am very pleased about. Clare gets equal amount of credit for giving good feedback during the design process as well as being a great text writer.
• Clare and myself have started doing paddle surfing here (SUP), since that’s a sport we also want to promote at Swell Surf camp. We found it a great sport and also realise that cabarete is an ideal spot for it. Muscles have been sore form it the last 2 days, but we are definitely going to continue.

Now I am going to make sure that this Blog gets a good look and then Clare will probablly take over, since she has turned into the inhouse blogging expert and can write way better than I can.

Hasta Pronto, Jeroen