From Our Luxury Surf Camp in Costa Rica

Stories, surf tips, and travel inspiration from Dominical

74 articles

women learning to surf at surf camp in costa rica

Why an All-Inclusive Surf Retreat Beats Doing It Yourself

You’ve decided you want to learn to surf on vacation. Great. Now the work begins. First: where? You start Googling “best places to learn to surf.” You get Costa Rica, Bali, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Hawaii, Morocco — twenty tabs open, all saying different things. So you narrow it to Costa Rica. But where in Costa Rica? Tamarindo? Nosara? Santa Teresa? Dominical? Jacó? Each town has a different vibe, different wave type, different crowd level. You read blog posts, Reddit threads, TripAdvisor reviews, surf forums. Three hours later, you still haven’t

Beginner Surfer? Here’s Why You Should Start in Costa Rica

Even if you haven’t seen the cult classic surf film, Endless Summer II, it probably comes as no surprise that Costa Rica is famous for its surf spots. And it’s not necessarily because the country is home to the gnarliest breaks or biggest professional events. It’s because Costa Rica is one of the most beautiful and challenging-yet-forgiving places to surf. The Pacific Coast of Costa Rica is home to hundreds of surf breaks that are largely uncrowded and perfect for both beginners and professionals, alike. Witch’s Rock and Ollie’s Point

5 Reasons Why You Should Surf with Your Teens

Spending time with your teenage kids can require a delicate balance: you’ve got to find something fun, engaging, and most importantly, cool. Surfing checks all those boxes and more. Here are five reasons you should surf with your teens: 1. Teach the importance of a healthy lifestyle Establishing habits for an active lifestyle is much easier than getting acquainted with working out later in life. Introducing your teen to an activity like surfing can set them up for a lifetime of healthy living. Surfing encourages you to maintain a decent

Why Surfing is One of the Best Ways to Stay in Shape

One of the best things about surfing is that it’s approachable for everybody — wherever you come from you can find success on your board out on the water. Surfing is also a life-changing activity that requires no prior experience to learn quickly. The best part about surfing is that it has lasting effects that carry over into nearly all aspects of life. Below, we present to you why surfing is the best way to stay in shape. All in one First, the obvious: it is a full body workout.

3 Reasons Why Executives Should Recharge

A mentor of mine at BP once told me something that has never left me: “When it’s calm, take a rest, because you never know if tomorrow there will be a storm and you need to be rested and ready.” I carried that advice from corporate boardrooms in Europe to the jungles of Costa Rica, where my wife Silene and I built Kalon Surf from the ground up. And after more than a decade of running a luxury surf resort—welcoming hundreds of driven, successful people through our doors—I can tell

Friends of Kalon – 5 Minutes with Ned Sheeran

As guest experience is at the heart of the Kalon philosophy we love to share the insights of our friends. Ned Sheeran has visited our resort over 10 times, we found out why he loves the Costa Rican surf and making new surf friends from all over the world. Experiencing Three Vacations in One… I like to think that visiting Kalon is like experiencing 3 vacations in one… The Surfing Experience It’s great to have access to a wide range of surfboards and the latest technology during each visit as

Slater Designs Surfboard Helium Gamma on the beach

Kelly Slater Designs’ The Helium Gamma

“It’s just a great standard small board; performance board.It’s kind of like, putting years and years of design into a board that just feels good under my feet. Right away.”—Kelly Slater on The Helium Gamma. The Helium Gamma is part of the Firewire and Slater Designs lineup we carry at Kalon — and it’s a board with some genuinely interesting construction. The Build From Slater Designs: “We crafted this shape using an ultra-light foam core, and an ultra-light (but durable) aerospace composite deckskin so that the deck feels soft beneath

Experience Kalon Surf in 3 Minutes

Two videos tell the Kalon story — and the story behind them says a lot about how we run this place. The first video In 2017, Mike Seib came to Kalon with a group of friends. We didn’t know much about Mike at the time — just that he was a great guest and his group had an amazing week. After they left, I got an email from him. It said something like: “We had a great stay, thank you very much. I made a quick video — here it

Kelly Slater Designs’ The OMNI

The last (but not least) model in the Kelly Slater Designs lineup is the Omni — another LFT-built board, this time designed as your everyday go-to. It’s part of our Firewire partnership and available to intermediate and advanced guests at Kalon. Here’s Kelly in his own words on the Omni: “Where do you surf this board? As the name implies, it’s an all-rounder for every kind of wave. I’ll ride this in basically any surf that’s not too big, but even then, I’ll try it if I can catch the

Best Top 5 Hotels in Costa Rica after your Kalon Surf Camp

Top 5 Hotels to Extend Your Stay in Costa Rica

Your Trip Doesn’t Have to End (Or Begin) at Kalon Our weeks run Saturday to Saturday — but sometimes guests want to stay a night or two longer in Costa Rica, either before or after their week with us. We get asked for hotel recommendations all the time, so Silene and I put together a list of places we’ve visited ourselves and genuinely love. A quick note on San José: it’s a complicated city. Not necessarily beautiful, and we don’t recommend spending a lot of time inside the city itself.

Kelly Slater Designs’ The Banana

In the previous post we discussed the Sci-Fi model — let’s look at the Banana now. This is the board Kelly surfed at his famous pool wave session. Like all the Slater Designs models in our Firewire partnership, the Banana doesn’t use a conventional stringer. Instead, it has a 0.75-inch wide aerospace composite strip running down the centerline — part of Firewire’s Linear Flex Technology (LFT). As Stabmag noted, the construction combines EPS blanks with entropy bio-resins, making them certified “Ecoboards” by SustainableSurf.org. The practical upside at Kalon: these boards

Kelly Slater Designs’ Sci-Fi

If you follow the World Surf League (WSL) you will have undoubtedly heard of Stu Kennedy’s incredible performance in the first WSL comp of the year at Snapper. Needless to say, With Firewire Surfboards being our partner, and with that Kelly Slater Designs, we couldn’t be more proud to have his incredible talent finally recognized and for all of the well-deserved attention it has gotten him. He is a hard worker, a fierce and level-headed competitor, dedicated family man and all-around great human and we are stoked for him. What

Top 5 Activities to add on to your Kalon Surf Camp Week in Costa Rica (2026 Updated)

Kalon Surf Luxury Resort Costa Rica is all about offering a beautiful surf camp experience in Costa Rica for our guests that work hard and

3 Reasons Why Executives Should Recharge

A mentor of mine at BP once told me something that has never left me: “When it’s calm, take a rest, because you never know

Treat Yourself

You've earned more than just a vacation.

First Name

Last Name

Arrival date

People count

Room type

Message

Hello@KalonSurf.com SMS/TXT +1 949 342 6215

What Our Guests Say

4.9 ★★★★★ 130 reviews 4.9 ●●●●● 365 reviews

★★★★★

"The BEST all inclusive vacation ever !!!! Everything about our week at Kalon was awesome...From the moment I meet Freddy till the day Brian dropped us off at the airport. The staff was excellent they…"

Buzzy

TripAdvisor

Dec 2025

"Fantastic Stay Our stay was absolutely fantastic! My only comment is regarding the food: everything chef Josue made was truly amazing, worthy of any fine dining establishment anywhere in the world! That said, we were…"

Madeline V

Feb 2026

"Highly recommended! Everything about this experience was simply amazing. The food was outstanding, and the chefs—Josue, Luis, Jaikol, and Vic—truly went above and beyond. The surf sessions were just as incredible, thanks to the skilled…"

Craig R

Featured Posts

Treat Yourself