Costa Rica 2007: Coaching Course Report:
ISA Coaching course presenter Marcos Conde visited Costa Rica where he accredited new Level 1 and Level 2 coaches
WHAT: 3 courses Level ONE and 1 course Level TWO
WHO: 25 instructors Level 1
4 Instructors Level 2
WHEN:August 15-23, 2007
WHERE: Pacific Coast of Costa Rica
WHY: Sports Development in Panamerican Region
With the support of the Costa Rica Surfing Federation, we conducted the ISA Surfing Instructors Courses, covering the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica in the third week of August of 2007.
Costa Rican’s attending ISA Courses
The first course was in Jaco Beach, at the “Rincon” of the JASS Surf Shop. The city is located in the central part of the Pacific Coast, the epicenter of surfing in Costa Rica. There are a lot of surfing schools here and the most important of them sent an instructor and we had 8 people attending the first course. The course was done in two days with sessions in the morning, afternoon and evening (Tsunami Warning about 7:30 pm) to fit into their working schedule. The second day we did the practical session in Jaco Beach.
We had very good results because they were implementing the new information into their work during the afternoon and feeling the results, giving course presenter, Marcos Conde good feedback and a very good debate about the best tide to teach in Jaco.
Movement Demonstration in Level 1 at Jaco Beach
The second course was the level 2, which took place over 3 days. There were 4 instructors, 3 from the area and one from Puerto Rico.
Practical Video in Level 2
The course was very good because of the high level of attendance, most of them professionals and very talented surfers. We also had the opportunity of having the beach session during the Triple Corona, a professional contest where they competed, did practical video and venue analysis in a real situation.
Pacific North Coast
The third course was in Witch’s Rock Surf Camp, Tamarindo, in the north pacific coast. The city is more international and has less surfing schools than Jaco, but offers good conditions for teaching and has many different tourists’ coming. We had 13 coaches, 11 from the same surfing school, the Witch’s Rock Surf Camp and 2 from other surfing schools, one Argentinean who runs a surfing school and a Puerto Rican.
The level 1 Tamarindo Group
The course was run in two days with morning afternoon and evening sessions. The practical lesson at Tamarindo Beach was run with an Austrian beginner and was very productive because Marcos taught first with a 9 0 but thin and narrow board, and then a bigger thick and wide board and the result was very good.
Pacific Central, South Coast.
The fourth course was in Quepos, at the Mono Azul Hotel, in Manuel Antonio Beach, which is a big international tourist destination and has perfect conditions for beginners.
Instructors and students in Manuel Antonio Beach
There were four instructors from Manuel Antonio Surfing School and it was more like private instruction with practical consulting at the beach. But at the end it was very productive and maybe it can be a format for licensed surfschools, EX: attacking more the main points, like safety, work in more repetitions and more corrections in the sand.
Full Accreditation for Manuel Antonio Surf School
