GET IN THE FLOW – 7th FLOW SurfYogaSamba Weekend Retreat in Baler

What a weekend.

3 days of fun and excitement.
72 hours with new friends and new experiences.

But leave it to me to wait over a month to write this post. One of these days I’ll stop procrastinating. Until then, here was the weekend…

After a brief sleep through the dark hours of the early morning, we woke up to sunrise and the amazing landscape of the Philippines. Even though it was a long bus ride, its hard to get tired of views like this –

We were also treated with a vegan breakfast. As you may know, I’m a pretty big guy and I love to eat meat. Even with that said, this breakfast was pretty good. Props to PipinoVeg, you made healthy taste good 😉

Once we arrived at Aliya Surf Resort, we spent a little time checking out the beach, meeting our fellow flow’ers, and grabbing lunch.

I was more than happy with the resort and my room. Imagine waking up to this each morning. Seriously.

Here’s the room and CR (aka bathroom/comfort room). Sure it’s simple, but it has StokedInc girls on the wall – so what else do you want?

I was supposed to have my first surf lesson of the trip at 3pm but I was so tired I didn’t wake up from my nap until 330. Luckily for me, nobody noticed. I found an instructor that was free, grabbed a board and we hit the water.

[Sorry No Photo… I WAS BUSY SURFING… Haha]

Just before dinner it was time for some music. It was time to Samba. I joined drummers while the girls got a little dance lesson.  Dinner kept a similar theme to the rest of food on the trip. Healthy. Considering how much crap I had been eating the weeks before, it was a welcomed change. Here are some pics of everyone getting setup to Samba, plus our healthy dinner.

After dinner we stayed up as long as we could. I think I lasted until 9 or 10pm. We were all exhausted from a long day of fun in the sun.

In the morning I chickened out of what was supposed to be my first ever yoga lesson. Why was I chicken? I have no idea. I assume its because I’m a guy and were weird like that haha.

Our second set of surf lessons could either be done in the morning or afternoon. I chose to do the afternoon. I took the morning to bring my camera out into the water and get some shots of my new friends catching waves. Here are a few.

In the afternoon I got my second lesson (I wasn’t late this time). One thing that really set it apart was having a DJ setup banging out beats. Catching waves while rocking out to tunes is a serious way to spend your afternoon. We also got a intro to raw veg and a second round of samba. This time everyone got to grab a percussion instrument and join in a samba drum circle, on the beach, at sunset. Beat that!

On our last night, I made the confession about chickening out on the yoga. Big mistake. I was promptly woken up very early the next morning. I wasn’t getting out of it this time.  I’ll tell you a secret. But you have to keep it between us… It wasn’t bad at all 🙂

For the final activity, half the group chose to stay for a last round of surfing. I chose to go on a hike to some waterfalls.  8 girls… and me. Yeah, I know I’m smart.

It was quite the little adventure. 15-minute bus ride. 10-minute trike ride, straight uphill. Then a 25-minute hike.

But it was totally worth it.

There is one sad part to the story. One the way back from the waterfall, I lost one of my sandals while crossing a stream. Luckily, our guide found me another sandal that someone had lost before me. I wonder how many sandals that stream has eaten over the years.

Here’s a pics of our group that I stole from the FLOW website.

A very big THANK YOU to Denise, Noelle and Monica for putting together this great weekend. I met a lot of great people. Had a so much fun and relaxation, I’m wishing I was back there right now. I’m looking forward to the announcement of your next retreat.

For more info your can check them our here:

Website >> http://www.flowsurfyogasamba.blogspot.com
Facebook >> http://www.facebook.com/flowsurfyogasamba
Twitter >> http://www.twitter.com/surfyogasamba

BONUS – Check these awesome videos from the weekend.