PeopleCosta Rica’s favorite yoga teacher? 

Francela is one of very few girls, along with Gem & Jesse, who you will see paddling out at Playa Guiones when the surf is triple overhead and pumping. But she’s more than just one of Costa Rica’s best female surfers, she is also, we are proud to say the yoga instructor at The Surf Simply Resort and one of the first friends we made when we moved to Costa Rica.

At Surf Simply we approach yoga from a sports perspective and so Francela designs her daily classes around flexibility, core strength or relaxation depending on what condition your surf session has left you in. Francela really knows her stuff too. She is a Senior Pranassage Practitioner and Interdisciplinary Yoga Teacher having graduated from the (now world famous) Nosara Yoga Institute in 2007 (where she is also teaching on the Pranassage Practitioner Training). She earned the 500-RYT designation from the Yoga Alliance in 2010 and as if all that wasn’t enough, she is also a Pilates instructor.

When Francela isn’t in Nosara she often works as a private instructor in both The States and Costa Rica for various celebrity including Marsha Williams (Robin William’s wife), Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins. While Francela is very much an A-list yoga teacher she still has her feet firmly on the ground or, more likely on her surfboard, here in Nosara.