Dr. Alejandro is back, except this episode is only fun stuff: Music & surf talk. He details the upcoming Caricaco Music Festival and I ask him details about his surfboard inventory.
Tag: Nosara Podcast
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NP #166: The Nosara Skatepark Episode
This Nosara Podcast episode is a great one! We’re thrilled about the new skate park, plus we learn quality community information. Thanks Thierry & Mike!!!
Nosara Skatepark Episode Notes:
Thierry owns Cafe Paris, since 1995, 28 years here with wife Martín, their son Mael
Mike Lopez, from LA. Pro skateboarder, actor, stuntman
Skatepark started with Mael’s visit to Tamarindo with his friend Jack & only feeling safe at skatepark. He wanted to donate some land he owned in N Guiones to a skatepark which Thierry has wanted for the community anyways. Thierry, Martín & partner decided to donate land & others are contributing monies for construction.
Mike emailed Thierry about skatepark idea. He wanted a skatepark here to use and be a part of. Later in episode he explains opening a skate shop in N Guiones. Mike connected with New Line to build the park.
GoFundMe setup everything flowed well getting project together.
Thierry & Mael do not skateboard.
Volunteers are approaching wanting to teach.
Rich presses Mike to learn what his main reason for moving here and what his concerns and fears about moving to a different country are.
Mike explains surfing caught his full attention.
Rich remembers talking with Thierry about skatepark ideas years ago but a different park emerged for a while… Thierry agrees new park way better than the ideas of years past.
Nicoya Mayor agreed with projec
Marco from ADIN says 1800 in Nosara village 3 years to 16 or 17 years old have no place to go. There’s basketball court but soccer field closed and kids need something to do.
Marco & Martín said don’t put in Guiones… Freddy from Terratour is doing free shuttles for local Tico kids in each village to go to park on the weekend.
The park is free. No entrance & everyone can hang out. Skateboarding, basketball, and climbing wall will be for free.
No food, no drinks, no competition for vendors, just a free good place
Road paved with permits and support from Nicoya & NCA.
Rich says Nosara likes to complain & asks if anyone complaining about things or worried about noise?
Events would just be for community or the 5 villages.
Erik Kurzbard’s skate videos
Rich says open Dr office by skatepark. Thierry says X-ray machine just arrived & Mandala was moved yo new location.
Dr. Alejandro going to support skatepark
26 minutes: Thierry asks ‘Do you get hurt skateboarding?’
Skatepark made with flowing, surfing type of feel fir beginners and intermediates but advanced skaters can have fun, too. Can be fun & safe.
Kona stories from Rich about benefits of pads (knee pads, wrist guards, elbow pads)
Thierry points out Nosara only had 1 Tico surfers a couple decades ago… But now Jimena is champion & others are too so why not nosara champion skater in 10 years?
Sophia & George donated to help 5 neighborhoods small skatepark plus free rides on weekends to Guiones skatepark.
Still need donations. Goal is from $1 to $1,000,000 so everyone can feel like owner. Unite the community through participation.
Nosara dislikes
Mike says roads.Rich talks about the Nosara Gossip Machine and how Nosara isn’t perfect… Thierry was scary man.
Thierry says dust being gone and more pavement in N Guiones & Main Street Guiones and the Calle Modelo project with Harmony Projects.Thierry says mainly private people and not too expensive. Rich asks if L section can fix their road & Thierry says yes.
Rich makes joke about Nosara & Nicoya getting along
Thierry complains about truck noise especially when they downshift using motor for brakes.
Rich says need speed bumps in front of orgánico, El Locale, and at the old 5 points where Pelada entrances and L section are.
Thierry says 10 or 12 speed bumps on way
3 favorite restaurants
Mike’s
Almendros wings
La Luna bbq chicken pizza
Olivia’s
El Chivo Thai foodThierry
Harmony Patte?
Luv Burger pizza
Pulpo
Blue ZoneLast words:
Nosara Skatepark GoFundMe & new skate shop about to openRich says thanks for speed bumps and Nicoya being nice. Thierry says new mayor very positive and wants to help.
Thierry says everything bad from past is getting solved (internet, roads, phones, restaurants, etc)
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NP #165: Cynthia Michaud & The James Initiative
Cynthia Michaud’s episode is heart wrenching, yet full of warmth, positivity, and hope through community events such as Tastes And Treasures Of Nosara, on February 25th.
In this episode, Cyn shares how The James Initiative is an transitioning a tragedy into massive amounts of ongoing positivity reaching deep into Esperanza, a small town on southern end of Nosara.
Unfortunately, 1/3rd of it’s residents live beneath the poverty line, and some residents are suffering from domestic violence, alcoholism, incest, teenage pregnancy, mental needs, etc. and they need help.
Dr. Alejandro communicated with Cynthia about the situation and now we are fortunate to have
The James Initiative focusing on the situation.Get your tickets &/or participate in the online auction & have some fun! Here is a link to the online auction:
https://bit.ly/thejamesinitiative-auction
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NP #164: Emmanuel Gutierrez covers Nosara Crece, Vive el Sueno, Santa Marta ASADA, Nosara – Nicoya Relation, and much more Nosara Challenges and Opportunities
Big thanks to Michael Strasmich for connecting us with Emmanual Gutierrez who recently recorded with us. Emmanual is highly involved in multiple community initiatives such as Nosara Crece and Vive el Sueno, and also serves on the board of the Santa Marta ASADA. He has a high level education, is originally from San Jose, but came to Nosara and is dedicating his life to the people.
In his podcast we cover a lot of ground from explaining the ideas and programs behind Nosara Crece and Vive el Sueno to covering a multitude of community issues, concerns and opportunities.
- Introduction to Emmanual Gutierrez;
- Nosara Crece (low interest loan program for local entrepreneurs, with extremely high success rate);
- Vive el Sueno (business training for local entrepreneurs);
- ASADA Santa Marta;
- Intristic motivation to dedicate life to people of Nosara;
- Difficulties in finding human resources and connection between quick development in Nosara from agricultural to tourism to high end tourism;
- Opportunities in Nosara to be a model community for other places in Costa Rica and the world;
- Challenges of inflated pricing in the region;
- Competing community organizations and how are they able to survive;
- Strategic ideas to inform and approach community and seek mutual solutions vs. online bitching and moaning;
- Communication with Nicoya and Nosara solutions coming from governmental levels or community extractions?;
- Nosara entrepreneur examples;
- Emmanuals three favorite Nosara restaurants;
- Emmanuals biggest Nosara dislikes
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NP #162: Gnome Surf kicks off Happy Camps in February to help kids with Autism, Down syndrome, Depression, Anxiety; ADD, ADHD, and more
Gnome Surf is back with updates about Happy Camp in CR which starts in February 2023. Here’s the show notes from another great conversation with Mr. Chris Antao:
- Chris needs shoulder help after 800 lessons
- Happy Camp happening in February
- Happy Camp non profit 501c3 autism, ADD ADHD, depression & anxiety
- families from all over coming
- gnome traveling to Texas, CR, not just northeast
- Chris done with investment banking job and now a firefighter due to gnomes growth
- Gnome doing well was on PBS, the good news movement, more corporate sponsors and hitting sustainability limits for survival
- used to be 200 to 400 families, now 3000+
- looking to build camp in NE similar to Happy Camp in CR
- Rich rants about surfing going from a bad thing to being cool & socially accepted
- Chris explains how at first surf therapy wasn’t accepted. But now is. Kids aren’t just learning to surf… They are learning to get back up again
- Chris explains naysayers always existed and some still do. Rich asks chris to explain further
- Chris says knew surf therapy real because helped him
- Brown University, Harvard, etc wanting to work with Gnome
- rich asks if struggle over. Chris says struggle was real but door now closed. CVS & others giving funds and product for Gnome athletes
- Pharmaceutical bad joke from rich
- Over 20 paid instructors in US, 4 years ago just chris
- In US 25 to 40 lessons per day on weekends event days
- Gnome doesn’t need big waves
- 50 to 75 passes sold for next season already. Over 10 week long camps out of Rhode Island
- Gnome is: Inclusion, Love and Kindness for all kids
- Good PR is foundation for rough times and people knowing Gnome stands for inclusion and acceptance
- Biking, snowboarding on way
- In Nosara Chris wants to help local kids with autism, Down syndrome, anxiety, etc
- Goal is one local camp per year
- Feb 18th week
- inquiries coming in about Nosara Happy Camps so need help from locals
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Nosara Social Science Study Report to the Community: Four Perspectives on a Sustainable Future in Nosara, Costa Rica
Dr. Alvaro Salas Castro is a frequent quest on the Nosara Podcast. You may remember him as the leader of the community round table event at El Local last July 29th. This event was hosted to share & gather information for the Nosara Social Science Study.
A team of high level social scientists including Dr. Alvaro Salas, Tina Nabatchi, Christian Freitag, and Greg Munno are conducting the study focusing on Nosara’s ability to become a model community for the world, or just another standard beach town.
There are many different levels to the study which evolves around the sustainable future of Nosara. After the event they have been working hard on processing the data further with the first results now coming out.
We just received the publication of the research which we’ll include here below as a downloadable PDF as well as the Abstract from the publication:
The town of Nosara on Costa Rica’s Nicoya peninsula is home to a vibrant community of diverse residents and is adjacent to an important turtle nesting site. However, tensions between lifelong residents, more recent transplants, visitors, and developers have increased as more of the
world discovers this once-isolated haven. Climate change, income inequality, and alienation from a
distant government apparatus have further complicated effective land-use planning and fractured
social cohesion. Using a mixed-method approach of in-depth interviews (n = 67), Q methodology
(n = 79), and public deliberation (n = 88), we explored residents’ priorities for the future of their
town. The results indicate four different perspectives on Nosara’s future. Despite the tensions among
those four perspectives, they show consensus on one overarching community issue: the need for
a sustainable development plan. The case also shows how Q-methodology can assist scholars and
practitioners who embrace participatory approaches to policy development and conflict resolution in
the environmental arena.For more background on this also include below is one of the earlier Dr. Salas episodes if you haven’t heard about this research before. More news and updates about the next steps and process will follow soon, so keep an eye out for any new updates!
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NP #161: Nitzan Solan is a chemical engineer determined to help Nosara’s wastewater situation
Nitzan Solan is a chemical engineer working in sustainability with a passion for Nosara and what it brings to her personal life. She has strong opinions about wastewater management & wants people to learn sustainable systems using wastewater not only to be better stewards for the environment, but to grown their own food & overall make differences. Her experience includes TED talks, being a medical cannabis specialist, and focusing on converting waste into energy.
Here’s the show notes:
From Israel, chemical engineer, works in sustainability
Dream is/was to surf every day
Nosara brought a balance never felt before. Organic community project in city
Biogas
Waste management
Converting waste into energy is needed. Produce own fertilizer
30 second ad: Sustainable system 2 sq meters bio decomposition
Biogas, co2 100x more effective
Use waste to grow own food
Connect system to bio toilets
Below ground to trees, completely clean
Spoke with Nick & developers
Gray water diversion is 70% savings
Divert sewer water
She surfs in this water and truly cares
100k for 50 homes, full on automatic treatment center
TED talk, Living Box, growing your own food, enjoys helping people help themselves
International medical cannabis specialist
N likes early parts but dislikes the $ or factory parts of it all
Surfing ability and mental commitment
Surfing in the south, Guiones paddle out
40th birthday & feeling good
Relaxation & commitment
3 favorite restaurants
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NP #160: Chase Kosterlitz shares his story & speaks his mind
Chase Kosterlitz is an interesting episode. We met in 2012 at a surf expo as Blue Zone SUP searched for a pro surfer. Chase was, and is, a world class paddle surf racer so we didn’t fully connect. Years later, Chase meets Mr. Erik Antonson who brings Chase to Nosara and now he’s here full time. We surf together daily and I frequently laugh about how it all transpired. In this episode, Chase shares his story, his current life, his goals, and much more.
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NP #159: Nosara’s firefighters have a plan; Andrew Weinstein is coming for you
Nosara’s Bombero’s literally save lives yet are always seeking funding. Mr Andrew Weinstein has a new plan for everyone to hear and a way of categorization new to our area: There are ‘essential’ services and there are ‘discretionary’ services… Listen in and see how you feel about their new fiscal plan in this episode.
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NP #155: Laura Murillo: Choreography, Ballet, Macrame, Art House & much more
Laura Murillo is a multitalented woman who passionately practices, preaches, and teaches what she loves the most. She wants to help everyone she can improve and enjoy their lives through the arts. She caught me by surprise in this episode and it proved quite refreshing to meet someone this determined to live life as they choose to.
We hope you enjoy getting to know her in this episode!
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NP #153: Jose Ruiz plans to become a champion from Nosara; He shares thoughts about local surfers, Nosara’s growth, his goals for life
There’s many talented surfers in Nosara and Jose is one of them… Except he uses a paddle & he plans to become an international champion. I enjoyed speaking with him and hearing his plans for the future, his thoughts about local surfers, his thoughts about Nosara‘s growth and becoming popular, and much more.
