Last month, as I explored Costa Rica's Pacific coast, I took particular care to visit the Blue Zone of the Nicoya Penninsula.
26.05.2024 - 10:05 / nytimes.com
I paddled hard to stay in front of the two-foot wave, repeating the sequence of movements I’d just practiced on land. Press hands beneath shoulders, keep chest up, drive knee forward, plant back foot, then pop up into a crouch like a sprinter ready to take off. As I eased onto my feet, the wave crested and propelled me forward: I was surfing! My heart fluttered.
And then I was flopping backward into the face of the wave.
I’d traveled to the two-acre wave pool at Waco Surf, a water sports complex in Waco, Texas, chasing an unfulfilled childhood dream. I grew up on the Jersey Shore, and every summer I vowed to learn to surf, but without access to boards and lessons, the goal always eluded me. Now, as an adult, I was determined to change that through three days of lessons. A freshwater wave pool, it turns out, was a perfect place for this newbie to get her surf legs.
“One hour of surfing waves in the pool will give you more experience than an entire summer in the ocean because you’re catching waves every five minutes,” said Will Rolph, a 41-year-old visiting from California who grew up surfing at Newport Beach but had traveled to Waco for the wave-pool experience. “In the ocean, you might have to wait another hour, or your next session, to get another shot.”
My surf experience began on land with the hourlong Beginner Surf Academy class (from $49, but must be booked with a Beginner Wave Session). Three other students — a middle-aged couple from Austin and a young professional from Houston — joined me on the wave pool’s sandy beach. Michael Irvine, a 20-something instructor with chin-length sandy blond hair and an easygoing attitude, showed us how to paddle on our soft boards then pop up into a surfing stance. “Most people feel more comfortable with their dominant foot on the back of the board,” he explained.
After stretching and practicing for a while, we lugged our boards into the shallows of the pool to work on paddling and pop-ups there. Then we were ready for the waves.
Last month, as I explored Costa Rica's Pacific coast, I took particular care to visit the Blue Zone of the Nicoya Penninsula.
I'm so sick of hearing how terrible things are in San Francisco.
Jun 11, 2024 • 4 min read
Dozens of British Airways passengers endured a nine-hour "flight to nowhere" after crossing the Atlantic twice.
Committed to the preservation of marine resources since 2009 alongside Ethic Ocean, the Relais & Châteaux Association has once again joined forces with the NGO by launching a new awareness campaign. The objective? To remove all overexploited species of seafood from Relais & Châteaux menus, starting with eel, and to prioritize sustainable species.
Airline pilots, who are responsible for hundreds of lives daily, dedicate years of training and studying to earn their seats in the cockpit.
U.S. airlines are getting ready for fall with a flight special schedule to college towns — especially with big game days in mind.
Is it just a fluke, or is it coincidence?
While we often celebrate our favorite hotels around the world, we rarely spotlight the spaces within the hotel that make the property shine. Often, these are the areas—the bars, the restaurant, the rooftops and more—that become destinations unto themselves, pulling in a devoted set of locals to help turn a hotel into a place that residents use, too. So, as an extension of our recently released 2024 Hot List of the best new hotels in the world, we are highlighting the best new hotel restaurants, spas, and bars, as picked by our editors. Below, the hotel restaurants that compete with the best places to eat, anywhere—and the dishes you can't miss.
A United Airlines plane had to be removed from service after dozens of passengers fell ill, The Daily Mail reported.
The Port of Galveston is the fourth-most-popular cruise home port in the U.S., having hosted 1.49 million cruise passengers in 2023.
The official start of summer is still a few weeks away, and the airline network planners haven't been taking any vacations just yet.