At just 17 years old, Ziggi has already spent years coaching surfing and helping people become more confident and independent in the ocean.
In this episode of the Nosara Podcast, Ziggi talks about growing up around surfing, learning to read the ocean, understanding rip currents, staying calm in dangerous situations, and why ocean awareness is about much more than simply learning how to surf.
He also shares the story of a recent surf session in Playa Guiones where he encountered two young girls caught in a powerful rip current — and had to step in to help get them safely back to shore.
We talk about:
- Reading the ocean and identifying rip currents
- Why fighting a current can make things worse
- Staying calm when things go wrong
- Teaching kids to become independent in the ocean
- Surfing and ocean safety in Playa Guiones
- Ziggi’s experience rescuing two girls from a rip current
- His Ocean Awareness Guide and upcoming kids camps
- And, of course, a few favorite Nosara food spots
Ziggi’s favorite restaurants: Rosi’s, Almendros (chifrijo con pollo), Yaya’s
Find & contact Ziggi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ziggiocean/
Buy Ziggi’s Ocean Safety Guide: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4474118985/ocean-safety-guide-for-beginners-read?ref=shop_home_feat_1&dd=1&dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.etsy.com%2F&logging_key=f511941e8c4e7cf779c44ecb39e8f0575f9bae68%3A4474118985
Full Transcript
Ziggi: (0:00) I was heading out for a surf session and on the way I saw two small girls in danger screaming, “Oh my god, big big big wave.” Don’t know what would have happened if I wasn’t there. It’s much better to be safe. Learn to avoid the situations than to be sorry.
Rich: (0:23) Ziggy’s episode. Thanks for coming on our podcast. You’re up to cool things. I’ve known you for a long time now. Give us a quick intro on who you are, what you’re up to.
Ziggi: (0:33) So, I’m just truly so passionate about the ocean, whether it’s surfing, body surfing, just being in it. I’m extremely passionate about being in the water. And I feel that it affects me in such a positive way, even outside of doing the actual sport. And what I want to what I want people to know about me is that I deliver that to you. And I’ve now been coaching for 4 years. And what I’m passionate about is teaching surfing, teaching how to be in the ocean with more awareness. So yeah, I grew up in Denmark. My mom is from there. My dad is Guatemalan. And I moved here to Costa Rica in 2016. And throughout all of my life, I’ve always seen my dad coach. And it inspired me to start my own thing. And I’ve learned to coach in his way. I’ve learned to coach surfing, body surfing, everything he does.
Rich: (1:30) Okay. So, water activities across the board your whole life.
Ziggi: (1:34) Yeah, for sure. And I want to now move on to my next step which I feel is like ocean safety and how to stay aware in the ocean because I think the ocean can give you and teach you so many beautiful things and I feel that fear can kind of block
Rich: (1:55) Yeah. it can humble you too when you’re scared. Fear is a strong motivator or demotivator.
Ziggi: (2:00) Yeah. And I’ve seen like so many people get traumatized from situations like being in a rip current, feeling like they have no control. So I want to find a solution for those people.
Rich: (2:12) Okay. So tell us what that solution is and what’s your idea.
Ziggi: (2:15) Right now I’m doing surf lessons primarily. I’m doing it mostly for kids around the age of eight to 13. I’m doing it for adults, too. But that’s kind of my main age group that I’m teaching. And it’s mainly surfing for now. But what I teach with the surfing as well is ocean awareness. Like how can you stay safe in the ocean while surfing? And what I
Rich: (2:40) really that’s powerful, man. Like that’s big. That’s big stuff. That’s not a surf lesson. That’s like knowledge that like
Ziggi: (2:46) And what I really want to bring to these kids, too, is independency. I want them to be independent in the ocean and not have to rely on me. So that’s kind of I’m giving them the tools to be able to go out there and have fun by themselves, you know, because if I push them on every single wave, they’ll have fun in the moment, but when they actually go out to do it by themselves, what are they going to do? They’re going to have to rely on me. So my goal for these kids and my clients in general is for them to be able to have fun and have the tools to be able to enter the ocean in a safe way where they can maximize their joy in the water.
Rich: (3:23) So what are the most important tools?
Ziggi: (3:27) So for sure being able to read the ocean. Now that’s like a really broad topic for sure. Once you’re able to read the ocean though, you can like not only will you become a better surfer because you’ll know exactly what waves, what peaks to go to, and what points to avoid. You’re also going to stay much much much safer because you’re going to learn to identify where the rip currents are at, identify where the good surf is at, identify what spots to avoid.
Rich: (4:01) Let’s talk about rip currents. So, just today we had a rescue just right out front and from the hurricane a couple weeks ago, our sand’s really disproportioned. It’s making the surf phenomenal. But the entry to the water is different. And fellow was just riding his bike and wave waves are big today. Knocked him off, got sucked into the ocean and he got stuck in that one spot over by the volleyball courts where the harmony path is. That’s very dangerous right now.
Ziggi: (4:28) So yeah, it’s insane right now. But what’s also so strange is just 50 m north or south, people are standing in knee deep water. Yes. And so here’s this guy like drowning and it’s just I was just sitting there staring at it and I was just thinking if people knew how to read this we might be able to avoid more situations and that’s what I think it’s all about. I think of course it’s super important to know what to do when you’re actually in the situation. But the most important thing is avoiding it completely to begin with. Right? If you can read and you can identify, okay, there’s a rip current here, there’s a good peak here, you’ll avoid the danger zone, the danger situation, and not be there in the first place, right? Because when you’re there, it’s hard. No matter how much you know, no matter how good of a swimmer you are, especially with these gnarly rip currents right now, it can be super hard to get out of them.
Rich: (5:23) So, let’s talk about that for a moment. Uh, I’m assuming rip currents are probably the number one thing people are scared of in the water, which makes sense. That’s something that we all experience. If you play in the ocean, you’re going to be in rip currents. Especially here, they’re almost unavoidable. Um, but it can be daunting like when you get drugged out and all of a sudden you’re trying to swim against something, you’re like, “Wait, this isn’t working.” Uh, panic and fear is the number one cause of issues, right? So, you want to keep people calm. How do people stay calm when they find themselves getting pulled into recurring? What do they do?
Ziggi: (5:59) So I think the deeper layer of the fear of being in a rip current is the fear of not being able to have control over the situation. So the the key to letting go of this fear in my opinion is to let go of the control. You don’t in reality like yes you can paddle you can paddle or swim to the side swim to the other side but the ocean has it the ocean is huge and I think letting go of that control is a big big first step to letting go of the fear
Rich: (6:36) so is that are you saying relax
Ziggi: (6:38) relax that’s the first thing before you think about how you’re going to get out of the situation first relax and I’ve been in situations too where I feel like oh my gosh this wave is holding me down for way longer than I thought it was going to. And I start panicking. I’m like, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.” But in reality, this is just wasting my energy and wasting oxygen. So, first step, before you think of the solution, think of how you can calm your body. Think of something that calms you and let go of the control first step.
Rich: (7:14) What’s it like being 17, about to be 18, heading into adulthood? Mhm. Like guiding entire families. How do you hold that together at such a young age?
Ziggi: (7:24) So yeah, I feel that definitely because of all of the experience I’ve had, it’s I feel confident. I feel for sure confident in my experience and my knowledge, even when I’m with people who are older than me, because I know that I’ve been around the ocean my whole life. I’ve learned from the best coaches in the world, and I know exactly what I’m talking about. The ocean can be so intimidating when you see it from an outside perspective. But yeah, what I try to teach too is we’re taking this step by step. We’re stepping over your comfort zone. That’s the goal for sure. But we’re doing it step by step and in a way that you’re comfortable with.
Rich: (7:49) You said get out of your comfort zone. You have to do that to grow. We have to do that.
Ziggi: (8:07) For sure. 10,000%.
Rich: (8:09) You’re helping people control their own comfort zone.
Ziggi: (8:12) Yes. I’m helping people step out of their comfort zone in a comfortable way where it’s not too much either. The the next level up becomes comfortable. So, they have to face it. So, you’re taking them surfing and swimming and putting them by rip rip currents and then showing them how to avoid it and then getting them in them occasionally. Say, “Hey, okay, we’re in a current. Here’s what this feels like.” And then you show them how to navigate through it. And and actually on that note, rip currents if people just calm the heck down, things work out almost every time. It’s only when you panic and you find and like
Ziggi: (8:46) Yeah. the thing too is that the rip current ends up pulling you to the side and at that point you can swim in for sure.
Rich: (8:50) Let’s talk about least favorite rip current locations on the subject. I’ll start. Least favorite. I want to start this one at the Palada at the turn. So you have the right where the reef is. There’s the curve right around the And I see people fight that one hard. Mhm. Like I wish we could put up something and thank God for the salva videos and the bomberos and donate. They need money. But the that spot I’ve seen so many people panic a lot of rescue there. If they just stay calm, they’ll take you around and you’ll come out over the spot where you can
Ziggi: (9:22) thousand%. Yeah. There’s two ways to get out of a rip current. One, stay calm till the rip current drags you to the side, then swim in or swim to the side. get to a point where waves are breaking because usually the force of the rip current kind of stalls the waves. You want to get to a point where waves are breaking so you can utilize their power to actually get in because they’ll help you. They’ll help you in for sure. And that’s the tricky thing about a rip current as well is that there’s usually no waves there to help you in. So, it can be so hard to fight against it, man. If you and once you learn how to stay calm, letting waves push you in so beautiful. Like just like when the wave’s coming, if you just notice they come and let it just drag you, what a wonderful thing. But when you’re scared of it and you’re dodging that, you might be missing part of the the escaper route, right?
Rich: (10:12) 100%. Like that’s
Ziggi: (10:14) So that’s what I mean for sure. Like also for younger kids, it is just almost impossible for them to stay calm and it’s almost impossible for them to even think straight when they’re in those types of situations. So that’s why I’m saying like first it’s so important just to learn to read the currents to avoid them completely as parents.
Rich: (10:38) Oh, you got to name your least favorite on that note.
Ziggi: (10:41) Yes. The one in front of there’s such a gnarly one in front of Harmony right now. And actually unfortunately yesterday there were two girls. Two girls like maybe one of them was nine, one of them was 11, something like this. I think they were sisters. And yeah, I was heading out for a surf session and as a surfer, as an experienced surfers surfer, I used the current to paddle out like as an elevator almost to the outside. And on the way, I saw two two small girls on this big board and this maybe 19 year old woman trying to help them, but she didn’t know what she was doing either. So in reality, there was three people now in danger. And I saw this guy right next to me and I told him like, “Hey, go get a lifeguard.” No lifeguards were there. No lifeguards were in the tower. So I told him to grab my board, paddle in, try and find a lifeguard and I had to help these and they were far out. It it was pretty serious situation where like bigger waves, maybe four or five foot waves of white waters were hitting them and they were both panicking like I’ve never seen anybody panic before. Screaming, “Oh my god, big big big wave.” And I just I feel so bad for them because I think that’s creating a fear in their body of the ocean and it’s blocking them from actually experiencing it with 100% joy. And well, so at the end I helped them got them out of the current. I told the younger lady to swim. I asked her if she was a good swimmer. She was. I told her to move away. Grabbed the board. had to literally duck dive this 9- ft board over these waves with the two girls on it and had to swim to the side. Finally got out of this huge rip current and then um they got in front of the board. We paddled. We caught a wave in. Fortunately, like if I don’t know what honestly I don’t know what would have happened if I wasn’t there. And man, I got in. Both of the parents were standing there, ran to me, gave me the biggest hug, like broke down in front of me. And I This thing that they said is something that I remember. They said like, “Yeah, we’ve just been coming here for so long. We’ve we’d never we would have never imagining anything like this happening. And it’s like I feel that so many people are telling themselves, I got this under control and I know I know what I’m doing. And they feel like this wouldn’t happen to me. But I feel like definitely with situations like these, it’s much better to be safe. Learn to avoid the situations than to be sorry.
Rich: (13:40) Strong synopsis for what you’re doing. You
Ziggi: (13:42) Yeah, that was a gnarly gnarly experience. And I’m glad I was there and I’m glad I was able to pull them out for sure.
Rich: (13:48) All right. So, people need to contact you, hit you up, find you on socials and we can put all that stuff online if you can’t get a hold of me or I’m not in Costa Rica. anything. I have a ocean awareness guide that teaches you the exact tools to be able to to stay safer yourself and most importantly keep your children and others around you safe.
Rich: (14:10) So, you’ll share that with people. I recommend that for for anybody living near wilder oceans.
Rich: (14:16) Well, thanks for putting that out there. That’s really cool, man.
Ziggi: (14:18) Yeah.
Rich: (14:20) All right. Hard-hitting questions. What is your three favorite restaurants? What do you like to get there? Here.
Ziggi: (14:25) I got to put Rosies up there. I go there every single day. Love their casados. Um I’ve been going to Yaya’s more recently and like super cheap food. I love cases again. They have such good cases. I love the burgers there as well. So I got to put that up there for sure. And then I love Almendros as well. Alandros. I go I’ve gone there ever since I moved here basically.
Rich: (14:50) What’s your favorite things there?
Ziggi: (14:52) Alendros. I like the chifrijo, but I do it instead of with the the pig, I put chicken in it. Yeah, love that. So good. Well, yeah, I have a lot of things coming. I’m building a whole online community of ocean aware and surfers. So, go follow Ziggy Ocean on Instagram to stay tuned for everything coming up. I’m hosting if you have any kids around the age of anything from six to 14, I’m doing kids camps. So, if you follow my Instagram, I always put that out there. And yeah, for sure. I have a some things that I’m working on right now that I’m really excited to share.
Rich: (15:32) All right, man. Don’t stop practicing music. Congrats on getting that content out there. You did it before 18. You got it out there. You’re on this like you’re getting after it. I’m proud of you, man. You’re doing a good job.
Ziggi: (15:42) I appreciate that so much. Yeah, man. Thanks for coming on the podcast.
Rich: (15:45) Thank you so much for having me.
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