Travel Editor Scar has just spent a week with Surf Spirit out at their Sri Lankan Jungle Villa retreat. Here she talks to some of the girls who work in paradise about what makes this surf retreat special. 

Have you ever been to the Sri Lankan jungle? Well, that’s where travel editor Scar has just spent the week with Surf Spirit. Seven days of yoga, surfing, amazing food, and new friendships. She sat down with some of the girls working at Jungle Villa to talk about what it takes to make a surf retreat special.

Scar Lee, interviewing Jonina, Maja and Tash from Surf Spirit

Maja, you’re the yoga teacher here at Surf Spirit. Why is yoga practice so integral to a surfer’s journey? 

It can really be about the mobility practice of yoga when it comes to surfing, but what I think is so important is the meditative side of the practice.

By bringing the breath and the self connection to your journey, you gain focus and a regulated nervous system that makes you able not only to deal with difficult situations in the surf, but in your wider life as well.

Video analysis is so key to a surfer’s progression. Tasha, Surf Spirit’s content guru, can you talk to me about the benefits of adding video analysis to your surfing?

I believe that seeing yourself surf is such a powerful tool to realise what you are doing on the board. In the moment, there is too much to focus on, and you don’t always notice the tiny habits that are perhaps affecting your progress.

When you have access to footage of yourself surfing, you are able to see in real time what you can change and it really takes you to see it for yourself to be able to make a change in your technique.

Once you really want to progress, there’s no way around incorporating video analysis.

Jonina, as Surf Spirit Sri Lanka’s General Manager, can you talk to me about what sets Surf Spirit apart from other surf experiences?

We focus so much here on the community. All of our guests come here with a reason or a purpose. So if you want to come here to take time for yourself, you can do that, but we have such a family feel, and our guests are invited to join that and become part of something bigger.

You can build friendships here, you can arrive as a solo traveller, and you can leave here with a new connection to the other guests, to yourself, and you can take it back into your life at home.

Maja, can you talk to me about a highlight of the week for you working here at Surf Spirit?

A big part of my job here is the recovery after surfing, connecting to yourself. In yoga classes with breathwork, sound healing and different types of yoga depending on what our guests are longing for, but also in our weekly ice bath and sauna session.

This is an amazing recovery to sweat it all out, reconnect to yourself and breathe, and it’s definitely always one of the highlights of my week.

Tash, there’s such a tight-knit friendship between you girls working here at the Jungle Villa. How important is it to have close female friends in this role?

For me personally, it’s everything. It makes this experience so much more special than it already is. It makes me feel so supported to have these girls that are always there for me.

We’re there for each other and it’s such a safe space. It feels like family and work all at the same time, and I couldn’t imagine working here without these girls.

So Jonina, last question. Why do you think that a retreat like Surf Spirit is such a great environment for guests to make new friendships and bonds that are going to last a really long time?

I think because people come here with a different goal or reason. They all come here rather vulnerable. Then you go through highs and lows together. Whether it’s a wipeout, a party, or a really meaningful moment during a yoga class. You experience so many things with this new group of people that really centre yourself and allow you to open up in a deeper way than perhaps back in your working life.

It’s like the glue, you have so much fun together, and you go through so many things, that create some of the strongest bonds.

Can you imagine yourself out in the Sri Lankan jungle with the Surf Spirit team? Or perhaps at one of their other venues? Check out the Surf Spiri website to plan your next trip and experience it for yourself.