Share The Stoke Foundation teamed up with Firewire Surfboards and SOLID Surf & Adventure have brought christmas in July (well, June) to local surfers in El Transito, Nicaragua. These days it can be hard to find a surf destination without an uncomfortable vibe of locals, but in El Transito, the local surfer’s general stoke and friendliness in the water can easily become a positive highlight of a traveler’s trip and speaks volumes about the community.
One piece of this community is SOLID Surf & Adventure, an all-inclusive surf house with a volunteer focus, who makes it their responsibility to enable locals to grow in the sport and community through education, job opportunity and access to new gear. One of their most recent initiatives is offering locals only surf classes, led by the local surfers themselves and paid for by SOLID.
These initiatives gained the attention of the Share the Stoke Foundation and in less than two months, Share the Stoke brought seven Firewire Surfboards, FCS leashes, Gorilla Track Pads and Stickybumps wax to give out to these well-deserved surfers of El Transito: Juan, Walter, Franklin, Brian, Allan, Eduardo and Alejandro.
These local surfers not only hoot you on, give you waves and flash bright smiles of insane enthusiasm, but are in school, working, helping the community and are becoming great mentors that will keep the friendly stoke alive for years to come. Many of these surfers don’t have more than a small shack to call home, but their spirit, energy and all around high on life is one to be looked upon with admiration–one that proves that happiness is truly a mindset and one that encourages us to reflect on what matters most.
