You can already stand on the board. What you want is to actually surf the wave, the way you imagined it as a kid. That is the whole point of these seven days.
The Waveswell Retreat is a seven day stand up paddle surf retreat in El Salvador for adults who already stand on the board and want to genuinely ride waves. You come for six nights, you surf every day in a group of three to seven people, and every session is filmed and reviewed together the same day.
What makes it different is not the waves, it is the hours you spend out of the water. Somewhere in the week you and I sit down one to one and work through the beliefs that are quietly limiting what your body will let you do. Those are high performance tools I learned across nearly three Olympic cycles of competing, and they were never meant only for athletes. Most of my guests are between 55 and 75, they ran teams and companies for decades, and they had simply stopped applying that thinking to themselves.
Prices start at $3,500 per person and cover everything on the ground: your room, every meal, all your surf sessions, the video analysis, the tours and your airport transfers. Retreats run from November to March.
There are surf camps everywhere. Here is exactly what you get here that is hard to find anywhere else.
I have represented El Salvador as a professional paddle surfer for over a decade, across nearly three Olympic cycles: World Championships in Nicaragua, Mexico, Denmark, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and France, the Pan American Games in Lima and Santiago, and gold at the Bolivarian Games. That is not a trophy shelf, it is a way of breaking a movement down so you can actually learn it.
This is not a place where you wait for a season. There are waves here all year, the water is warm enough that nobody owns a wetsuit, and the country is consistently ranked among the ten best surf destinations on the planet. You will not lose a day of your trip to a flat ocean.
Meditation, visualisation, breathing, and the way you set an objective and hold it. I learned these from career development coaches inside the national team system. We use them on your surfing first, and then you take them home and use them on everything else.
Somebody is filming you from the shore without you noticing. Every day we sit down together and watch it, and you go back in the water with three clear objectives, not thirty. Groups are capped at seven people so nobody is a face in a crowd.
Waveswell exists to fund Mar de Sueños, the social project I founded to put children from the Salvadoran coast through school using sport as the way in. Part of every retreat goes there. You are not buying a holiday, you are joining a loop.
Guests come back. One of them, Sherry, is 72, has been on more than one retreat, and is now a friend I have visited at her home. That is the actual measure of whether a week like this worked.
I would rather tell you now than have you fly here and find out. This one is easy to get wrong, so read it properly.
Never been on a board? That is completely fine, and it is not a no. Book one to one coaching first, get to where you can stand reliably, and come back for a retreat.
You land, someone is waiting for you at the airport, and from that moment until you fly home you are not reaching for your wallet.
The only things you handle yourself are your flights, your travel and medical insurance, anything alcoholic, and your board if you want to rent one rather than fly with your own. Most people rent, because airlines in the United States stopped taking boards over seven feet and a paddle board is bigger and heavier than that.
Final price depends on single, double or triple occupancy. exact split pending
Here is what I see constantly. Somebody drops in, goes straight down the line, and gets off. That is it. That is the whole wave. And they are delighted, because they caught it.
What you are actually supposed to do is go down, come back up, go down, come back up, and stay with the wave. That takes reading the ocean, the right board, the right technique, and, more often than you would think, letting go of a belief about what your body can still do.
So we film you, we watch it together, and then we sit down alone and talk about how you approach things. People tend to be surprised by that conversation. After one of them, a guest and a visiting coach were still standing by a post an hour later telling me I had left them with existential doubts.
I had the pleasure of working with Joss in December 2023 and witnessed firsthand her exceptional skills, dedication, and passion for surfing. Joss creates a supportive and encouraging environment that fosters skill development and confidence. I love the way she incorporates visualization and mindset into her coaching. Joss’s passion is contagious and inspires those around her to approach surfing not just as a physical activity but as a lifestyle.
My partner and I hired Joss for 5 days of SUP coaching and we had a wonderful experience. She is a great and patient teacher that really focuses on her students specific weaknesses and needs. It is a very individualized experience. She is very professional and a pleasure to learn from. I strongly recommend her for new SUP learners or experienced SUPers who want to perfect their skills.
Being out of my comfort zone has become my happy place. Joss’ lightness and passion for the ocean inspired me to learn how to feel comfortable in the water and how to create balance in movement. Amazing sunrises, different perspectives, long talks about life and good company turned into a great friendship. Thank you Joss for sharing your talent and soul with me.
Sherry’s video testimonial goes here. video pending
Catch
the
waves
Make
waves
El Salvador has waves all year. What changes is the shape of what I can give you.
The full seven day retreat, in a group of three to seven, on set dates. This is when people fly down from the United States and Canada to get away from the cold, and it runs up to Easter week.
One to one coaching on your own dates, two hours a day, no minimum number of days. The Atlantic side goes flat around May and people come here instead. Board and paddle rental is available year round.
Waveswell did not come first. Mar de Sueños did. It is a social project I founded to reach children on the Salvadoran coast through sport, and to get them scholarships that carry them from primary school through to a degree and a real job. Every year it takes a small group, a maximum of 15 to 20 children.
Retreats are how it becomes self funding. Part of what you pay goes straight into it. The long version of the plan is a chain of hotel schools, where the hotel is where you stay and the school next door is where the young people from the programme are learning and doing their practice inside it. A virtuous circle, built on sport.
You need to already be able to stand up on a paddle board on your own. The retreat is not for absolute beginners, because the group moves together and a first timer would be learning while everyone else is riding. If you have never been on a board, start with one to one coaching sessions first and join a retreat once you can stand reliably.
The retreat starts at $3,500 per person for six nights and seven days. That covers accommodation, all meals, airport transfers, every surf session, daily video analysis, the one to one coaching work, tours around El Salvador and your photos and video. The final price depends on whether you take a single, double or triple room.
Flights, travel and medical insurance, alcoholic drinks, and board rental are not included. If you do not want to fly with your own board, a board and paddle for the whole retreat is $455, which is well below the regular daily rate. We can also connect you with someone who helps our guests with flights and insurance.
Three people minimum and seven maximum. If a retreat does not reach three people it is cancelled and everyone is refunded. If you have already bought your flights, the booking can be converted into one to one coaching instead so your trip is not wasted.
El Salvador International Airport, in El Salvador, Central America. Check this carefully when you book, because there are airports with similar names in other countries and people do get it wrong. You are picked up at the airport and driven back at the end of the week, and that transfer is included.
Retreats run from November to March, which is the high season and lines up with winter in the north. From April to October the focus shifts to one to one coaching on your own dates. Either way there are waves, and the water is warm enough that you never need a wetsuit.
Yes, and people do. Partners who do not surf are welcome at an adjusted rate that keeps the room, the meals and the tours but takes out the surf sessions, the equipment and the surf transport. We can also arrange separate tours or private coaching for them while the group is in the water.
Stand up paddle surfing only. We specialise in SUP surf, not shortboard or longboard surfing, and the coaching, the video analysis and the equipment are all built around the paddle.
The way this usually starts is an email. Then we get on a call, I answer everything you are wondering about, and you decide from there. No pressure, no funnel, just a conversation with the person who will be in the water with you.
