Our Travel Editor Scar spent the week at the Floating You’s Sri Lanka Retreat. She caught up with founder Riany about the importance of connection in today’s world, and how Floating You can help to cultivate it.
Scar Lee interviewing Riany Kathirithamby | Photos: Mel Hager
Hosted in magical surf spots around the world, each Floating You retreat is a place to find connection, both to yourself and to the people you meet along the way. Riany has a soft yet powerful presence, making her the perfect host to an experience where you’re invited to develop your surf skills and find out more about yourself along the way.
What does a day at a Floating You look like?
Floating You happens in different locations around the world, but here in Sri Lanka, we would usually start our day with a short meditation, breathwork, followed by a very grounding yoga flow to find our intention for the day. Sometimes we also start with a sunrise surf, which is absolutely magical on this island.
After surfing, we will come back home for brunch, an ayurvedic feast always. We have surf analysis every day, we want you to learn from every session and every wave, it’s anchored to the coaching here.
In the afternoons, the focus is self-discovery and personal growth, whether that’s a workshop, sound healing in the jungle, a cacao ceremony or even a more creative session, from painting to pottery.
How important is connection to you when you’re creating your retreats?
So many things are superficial in today’s world. Conversation often doesn’t get deeper than small talk, and I just wanted to create a space where it feels really safe for everyone to share where they are coming from, what they are working on, and know that they are not alone.
The reality is that we are all going through our little rollercoaster of life. When we strip back these layers and don’t feel as though we need to come across a certain way to be accepted, we really allow ourselves to shine from our deepest point, which is where we connect the most, because we really feel that we understand each other and that deep down we are all the same.
Half of the guests this week have been to a Floating You Retreat before; for one, this is the fourth time! What keeps people coming back?
It’s something that I never expected at the beginning, but now, when I run retreats, I often have three and sometimes four guests who are returning, and I think it’s mostly because of the connection and the safety. The sense of belonging. Real community is something that is so absent in some of our lives, and it’s something that our human nature truly craves.
Here you can just ‘be’, you don’t have to perform or impress, and this deeper understanding that Floating You invites you to live.
Quality is also so important to me, from the accommodation, what we eat, and whether I can gift a ‘local’ experience, away from the shiny Instagram hotspots.
How do you find the best coaches and facilitators for all of the different parts of the Floating You Retreats
Floating You is based on three pillars: surfing, yoga and self-development. I have the intention that every guest grows in all of these areas. It’s very important for me to find people who are not only top in their field but have the right intentions and energy to bring their own wisdom and magic into our week.
All the people who are involved in Floating You are people that I have been visiting, that I have been coached by, and only after meeting them myself, or being in their field, would I consider asking them to co-facilitate for Floating You.
Energy is sensitive in a space where growth is triggered, that’s why I select and choose my team very carefully and I’m so proud to have found amazing people around the globe, who help me to bring Floating You’s mission to life each time.
How do you make the self-development parts of the retreat accessible to people who haven’t explored that space before?
For the people who have never worked on their personal growth journey or who are new to surfing, I make it accessible by moving really slowly. I’m not a big fan of throwing things at them, big concepts and practices.
I really love to let a practice ‘land’ gently, and let the new person feel for themselves first. Create a space that isn’t overwhelming – new, but comfortable. Like that, most people feel so much more grounded and lighter by the third day already, and they begin to trust. I can see the shift in their faces and body language each time.
