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WBM june 2020
“The waves in Wrightsville Beach
were pretty small and controllable,
managable for me,” she says. “I always
felt safe. In Wrightsville, I knew I was
better than the average surfer.”
She now trains with surf coach Kali
Artavia and has the opportunity to
ride waves that challenge her. Many
of the waves that reach the shore
on the Pacific side of the Central
American nation travel from as far
away as Antarctica. On the days with
the biggest waves, she says she doesn’t
always go out.
“For the locals its a pretty easy wave,”
she says. “But some days I feel nervous.
It’s a lot bigger than Wrightsville
Beach. I love the waves here, but I get
out of my comfort zone.”
Even though she was born into
a family of surfers and had her first
lesson at age 3, she says she didn’t
immediately take to the sport.
“I hated it. I couldn’t do it until I was
12,” she says. “But it was something
calling my name. I decided to get over
my fear and just do it.”
The support of her surfing mother
has been essential to her development.
Amelia and Delilah were transfixed
when they first visited Nosara one
September during the rainy season.
They knew Wrightsville’s legendary
Crystal South Surf Camp surf instruc-tor
Jo Pickett, who leads surf trips
to Costa Rica, but no one else. They
didn’t speak Spanish. But Amelia, a
single mom, decided it was worth it to
help Delilah meet her goals.
“What were our options? Where
can we go for more consistant waves?”
Amelia says. “She wanted to compete.”
After visiting Nosara a few times,
the two of them took a tour of Del
Mar Academy. After finding out
more about the school and the
Nosara community, many of Amelia’s
concerns evaporated.