Our Motivation
Our surf camps were born from the idea of transmitting the emotion and the feeling of what we enjoy the most in life, surfing.
We are three friends with diverse professional backgrounds, connected through the life of surfing for many years. Not only surfing as a sport, but also as our lifestyle in Costa Rica. We’re passionate about sharing our love for surfing with others.
History
The Friends
The first two, Sergio Chavarria and Alejandro Banfi, both Costa Ricans, met at Tivives beach in 1990 where they began their surfing adventures.
Sergio is an industrial engineer specialised in quality management systems. More than 10 years ago he founded CAS (Costa Rica Austausch Service), an international organization for exchange students.
Alejandro made his way as an architect, is specialized in tropical architecture, and is the owner of the beautiful Tiamat Lodge where the surf camps are held.
The last friend, Torsten Lingott, from Germany, came in contact with the other two at the beginning of 2003 when he was doing one year of Chemistry Studies in Costa Rica. Since then he has been hooked up with surfing, and returns to Costa Rica on a regular basis to share his passion with the other two.
CAS Surfcamps
Totti and Sergio were so into surfing that they both got ASI (Australian Surfing Institution) instructor’s licenses to teach surfing, and in 2012 started organizing surf camps in Spain for the university of Freiburg. It was such a success that in 2015 these two guys thought “why not organize surf camps in Costa Rica where the water and the culture are warm, and there’s so much nature!” So they got in touch with Alejandro who had all the local knowledge in Costa Rica and that is where it all began.
The name of CAS surf camps came into question when we started. We decided to use the name of Sergio´s successful business CAS (Costa Rica-Exchange-Service). CAS is designed to offer host students and young people the experience of living in Costa Rican families, learn Spanish and immerse themselves in local culture. In addition to the student program, CAS organizes a variety of excursions throughout Costa Rica and neighbouring countries.
Also, CAS is the name of a native fruit that only grows in Costa Rica. We can identify with its origin, nature and we also enjoy it’s taste, so that’s how we came up with our name CAS Surf Camps.
