Camila Vargas

📍 Nosara, Costa Rica

🗣 Spanish, English

I have been surfing Playa Guiones since I was seven. My father put me on a foam board and pushed me into a wave and that was it. Nosara has become one of the most popular surf destinations in the world for women, and particularly for solo female travellers, for a specific reason: Playa Guiones has long, gentle, consistent waves that break over sand, not reef, and the water is warm. It is genuinely one of the best places on earth to learn. I run women-only sessions at 7am before the heat and before the crowds. I am not interested in getting beginners to stand up once and call it done. I want people to understand what waves are doing, how to read a break, and how to actually be in the ocean rather than just surviving it. I also do dawn paddleboard tours on the Nosara estuary before the wind arrives — the wildlife at that hour is extraordinary.