“Your pop-up was flawless,” my instructor, Andrea Diaz Coto, shouted from the water as I got on my nine-foot surfboard and started paddling toward her again. I had just ridden one of the many beautiful left-breaking waves all the way to the sand at idyllic Iguanita beach in Costa Rica. Diaz Corto runs a surf school, SurfX, along with Norwegian ex-pat Hanna Storrosten, who trained as a marine biologist before starting surf instruction full time. This year, they started working with the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo, leading the property’s surf program, which is how I met the duo that day. I had spent the past week making my way through several of the country’s best Pacific surf breaks and towns.

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