About our Full camps and how they are created.
As a company with 15 year experience we understand the seasons of the year & the swells that affect our different regions of Playa Jaco and other regions of the central and north pacific of Costa Rica allowing us to be able to determine what would be the best features for you to add to your camp based on the time frames of your possible visit and the tide charts for those dates as well as our suggestions, we would help create the perfect outline for you and a perfect training program weeks before your arrival..
The Full Camp format is our most complete and entertaining program, a perfect combination for the nature and healthy life lover, featuring some of the latest workshops for surf training as well as personalized surf training on our unbeatable beach front location.
On our area the tide would allow us to surf on two main blocks the two hours before the tide and the two hours during the tides, this would leave always a free block for us at Tortuga Surf camp to fill with nature oriented tours suggestions in order to give you a taste of real Costa Rica.
“Whether it’s your first time on a surfboard or you’re taking your training to the next level Tortuga Surf Camp will not disappoint! Their beautiful base camp at Selina is a perfect beachfront location. From the moment you walk in you can feel the energy!
All of the Tortuga instructors are the best in Jaco. True watermen who share their love for surfing and the ocean. They meet you at whatever level you are at from first time in the water to seasoned surfers. ”
All full surf camp program would include features such as video review and survival apnea work shops as well as hikes suggestions to local view point and off the beaten path secret spots too. We will help you find the best services and activities to do and see in town during your stay ,so you can just so you can kick back and let the outline of your surf camp do the rest of the work.
Don't spend half of your time trying to figure out what to do during your surf holidays and let us help you create the perfect itinerary for your Costa Rica surf holiday.
Our main idea here at Tortuga is to create a camp that suits you adventure and training expectations all in one by creating a camp that works with your vacation time availability. Tortuga Surf & SUP Camps is a locally operated business with the intention of preserving and transmitting the original core of our country's water culture, combining its water knowledge with a local homelike feel.
Our base camp is the most famous hostel chain in the world, a small hotel located right at the heart of Jaco beach and offering a great cozy feel to it. Just a 1-minute walk to the town's center, the hotel provides a nice and quiet setting with a perfect location from Jaco's main strip and commercial area.
To create the initial idea of the program, we put together information we get from you (the student) into our pre-set training week’s tide charts to make a general design for the program, so that it gives you a better idea about how our camps work. We call this the outline.
Once we have determined what dates you would like, we will set up the program's outline. This will be your initial proposal for the camp for you to understand what a typical day would be. This is merely a formality to give you a mental image of how the camps work and what the relationship between the training schedules and your free time looks like.
Once again, this would just be an outline, as tides rule the clock, meaning this program would be subject to weather and water conditions.
All cancellations or no shows to the already scheduled activities would result in the forfeit of the activity and its cost. If we need to reschedule due to weather or water conditions, there will be no charge for that portion of the camp.
Our small country holds 5% of the worlds Biodiversity on its land and 33% of our territory is protected, two of its most known parks (Carara & Manuel Antonio) are located just drives away from Playa Jaco.
So taking time to enjoy your natural setting would be an important part of your stay on our small slice of paradise.
We created our own training program based on ISA (International Surfing Association) guidelines and our own personal and our group waterman and their combined knowledge. Our instructors come from all backgrounds and waves of the country and the world, helping us to increase the detail of our programs and much more. The results now speak for themselves through the voices and reviews of our former campers and students on most online platforms.
The long term (7-14-22 days) programs are all split into 3 main blocks. Of course, the shorter the program, the more intense the training would be.
****On this end, we like to emphasize that our campers understand that we are a serious training program and not really a recreational one. Our main demographic are people who want to train and learn surfing to a real level to carry on with it. This means a lot of training even before you arrive to the camp in order to endure the heavy work loads and to complete your training goals.****
The program splits into 3 main blocks:
Mechanical Drills:
In this part of the program, we work on showing students how to properly move (if they are new students) and how to properly arrange your work tools (if they are intermediate and advanced levels). These programs are more intended to teach you how to train to improve.
During this stage, we will overview your every detail related to movement, as well as the way your body should look while performing on the water - all of this being backed up and documented at all times by Tortuga Surf Camp instructors and beach staff. This way, you don't need to worry about losing a moment and it will keep your memory fresh.
Timing Stage:
The timing stage is a “earn your rights to be there” type stage. Once the instructors feel like they can trust the students defensive moves and tools, they will proceed to take the student outside to the main lineup to start teaching how to be confident to ride green waves and side lines.
With the help of our instructors, the timing’s "umbilical cord" can be completely detached from the student, allowing them to experience a little more independence on the water. This way, students learn how water etiquette works when out surfing on your own also a very important topic for the traveling surfer to be.
Navigation Skills:
Navigation is extremely important for a surfer's safety, so we dedicate an entire block to navigation and media . This way a student can understand how to be in one area to make your time out surfing more efficient. This block also helps give you principals on surf forecasting so you are able to plan and predict your next surfing vacation (according to beaches similar to the ones we will be using to train) and to show you the mechanics of a beach and its navigational importance.
“This was my second time spending a week with Tortuga Surf School at Jaco Beach Costa Rica. It was awesome. My surfing greatly improved since the first time I was there and I learned a whole lot more to keep me busy this summer in New Jersey. ”
All surf camps, would include the following features:
Round trip private airport transfers AC & WIFI available
Accommodations at our beach front location
Video review
Survival apnea workshop ( Breath workshop oriented for dangerous situation assessment)
Professional photography sessions for technical reviews
Unlimited board rental
Skateboarding workshop (Advanced students)**