Surf Tourism: Monty Surf Lodge

In December of this past year I started a surf club here at TRU, called TRU Riders Surf Club. Through both Billy and Kellee’s sent me Montry’s contact information in regards to his surf lodge in Nicaragua. I contacted him a couple months ago and he informed me he was coming to town, so we arranged a time for him to come and meet our club’s members. This past Thursday he visited TRU, where he presented us with a slide show of his surf tourism business and the humanitarian efforts that have been developed. He also spent the time to answer our questions pertaining to his work.

The surf lodge is located in Jiquiliio, Nicaragua (on the North Pacific Coast). It is the only untouched coastline in Central America. Close to the lodge is the largest mangrove reserve in the Americas. These mangroves support the year round migration of many birds from around the world as well as the home of a turtle protection project. Paddle board, kayaking and other soft adventure companies ar

e now operating within this reserve area. The ocean levels have risen over the last 30-40 years, as a result of storms and climate change. Where the ocean is now use to be a road and had houses on the other side of it. The community experience high levels of poverty which has motivated the development of a long list of humanitarian efforts.

These humanitarian efforts include: support of childrens education including building an addition on a local school, providing students with uniforms, meals and clean drinking water to support effective learning. A medical and dental care facility has been constructed as well as the donations of medical and dental equipment and the organization of medical professional tourists, who travel and volunteering time at the clinic. A community centre has been built to hold seminars to educate locals on how use their resources to live sustainability, including education and donated supplies to grown their own crops. Trades workshops are organized to support the empowerment of women. These workshops supply local women with sewing machines, enabling them to manufacturing their kid’s uniforms and clothing, jewellery making workshops using recyclable goods and other trades. Monty has purchase a piece of land, which he has donated to the community to use as a sports field. Uniforms and sporting equipment has also been donated for community use. Clean ocean workshop are organized at high school to teach youth about the importance of waste management, recycling and the impact of ocean garbage on marine life. There is a large population of people that live in the city dump. Many of these children do not attend school, can’t afford clothing and spend their days sorting through garbage. Efforts have been conducted to go into this area and serve healthy meals to the residents. He understands that this is not going to create sustainability, but hopes that this effort offers these people some type of hope. Monty also works to supports community development and the local economy by employing locals at his lodge as well as organizing government paid p

ositions for local nurses at the medical facility. All of this development has been constructed by communicating and listening to the needs of the local community members.

Many of these efforts are in partnership with Operation Nicaragua, which is run in Kamloops and headed by local firefighter David. This operation collects all kinds of supplies and goods, which is stored and sorted in a warehouse in Kamloops and packed into containers to be shipped down to Nicaragua, where they will be distributed throughout the community. Shipping costs have all been covers by a local shipping carrier that sponsors the operations efforts.

Water contamination is a major concern in the area. Majority of the contamination is due to construction in the surrounding area. Guests and non-guests are able to purchase water filtration system for a Nicaraguan family. Each filtration system costs an average of $40 Canadian dollars.

Social tourism opportunities are available for Monty surf lodge guests including: spending times with orphans, working in the medical clinic, providing a meal for a local school and visiting the class, helping development projects and serving meals to the local homeless population. Social tourism plays on the self actualization need of the guests. The idea is to make them feel that they are making a difference in the community, which contributes to one of the surf lodge’s goals which is: to have clients feel that they have connected and created a relationship with the community, which will motivate them to keep coming back to support and further develop this relationship.