Creators

Alexandra Ruiz a free spirited Cuban American originally from Hoboken, NJ. In 2016 she decided to trade in her life as a Real Estate agent and NYC bartender to follow a more mindful path.

From stilettos in subways to barefoot in the Costa Rican jungle, she moved to a Yoga Retreat Sanctuary in Cabuya, Costa Rica. Stepping into a role she always felt was her truth – holding a healing space for others. She is also an avid surfer and sees the ocean as a healing space for all, the waves a place to cultivate mindfulness, strength, patience and trust.

Thanks to her mother, yoga and meditation have been a part of her life from a very young age. In Costa Rica, at The Sanctuary at Two Rivers, while hosting surf & yoga retreats, she completed her Yoga teacher training, and began on her new path. Followed by studying Thai Massage in Thailand.

Alexandra is now a Yoga instructor and Thai massage therapist. Allowing trust and gratitude to guide her, she continues to study and evolve her offering. From the yoga mat to the waves, her life is interwoven with mindful practices to cultivate and share the palpable daily bliss she’s found.

A documentary filmmaker, tech entrepreneur and creative junkie Thierry Daher was once struck by the idea, the instant realization, that the three disciplines of meditation, yoga and surfing were actually one, when properly aligned.

It happened when a few years ago Thierry was beach-hopping through Costa Rica binging on waves and yoga classes, having just completed a 10 days Vipassana retreat and moving through a major life shift.

One day during that solo road trip, in the small beach town of Samana on the Coast of Nicoya, and after intensely practicing surfing and yoga, and reflecting on the feelings and the experience he just went through, Thierry clearly felt that there was magic in the merging of these practices together. Bringing surfing, yoga and meditation into one made a lot of sense suddenly. That feeling never left him.

Two years later, and after a few attempts, he met Luciano Gonzalez, an international kitesurfing and surfing champion and Alexandra Ruiz an amazing yoga instructor and a surfer,… and Surfasana was born. On the North Coast of Dominican Republic.

Luciano Gonzalez grew up in the small beach town of Cabarete, on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic, with the waves and the wind as his guardian angels. Orphaned at a very young age, he has always considered the ocean as his “mother” and the wind as his “father”. A metaphor that has been guiding him forever.

Self-educated and self-taught, his strong purposefulness mixed with his unconditional love of the ocean helped him conquer life’s deep waters and become an international watersports champion.

Luciano’s freestyle and wave riding skills led him to win a number of major competitions: PKRA and 4-times winner of the Master of the Ocean™ , a prestigious 4-discipline (surf, windsurf, kitesurf, SUP), and Red Bull King of the Air (3rd place).

Luciano is also a yoga instructor and brings his practice of yoga in his surfing, kitesurfing and SUP practice and teachings. He is the Founder and Director of Ocean Academy DR, surf & kite surf school set in Encuentro Beach, a social enterprise near Cabarete. He also regularly hosts surf and yoga retreats for beginners and advanced students.