Risa Mara
Risa Mara is from San Blas, Nayarit as well as New York…yes, New York. Born to a fisherman and a beach lover, the ocean is in her blood. Raised as bilingual in English and Spanish between both Worlds of the US and Mexico, Risa Mara has been able to experience life through transcendent eyes and is extremely aware of what makes a great experience.
Risa Mara loves to salsa on her board while playing with her switch stance. Her accomplishments include winning a Bronze (Team medal) and Copper (Prone race) with the National Mexican SUP at the ISA World Championships in 2013, 2X Long board champ in 2015 and 2017 as well as a respectable 5th at the 2016 Pan-American Surf Games.
Risa also represented Mexico for the first qualifying Olympic event at the Pan-AmericanGames in 2019. She started surfing at 27 and has been guiding and instructing since 2010. She truly loves what she does and is also an accomplished filmmaker having shown her work in over 150 film festivals. Her current goal is bringing some more film projects to life while continuing with SYS retreats.
Lisa Kavanaugh
For the last 10 years Lisa has been living her dream, partnering in the meaningful transformation of her client's lives as an Executive and Life Design Coach while traveling the world as a digital nomad. Her journey began as a CTO and Chief Product Officer, leading a high pressure, achievement driven, high stress life. In 2013, she pulled the ripcord and quit her job, to fulfill a life-long dream of backpacking around the world for a year with her husband. You can read about her travels on her blog Zooming Way Out.
The plan was to return at the end of the year, but when that day came, she realized something deep inside her had shifted and there was no going back. Since then she's pivoted her career, leveraging her leadership experience and passion for empowering others to bring out their best self, to build a thriving coaching practice. With an awareness-based approach focused on aligning impact with individual values and sense of purpose, Lisa strives to empower her clients to maximize capacity and satisfaction in their lives in and out of the office. She is passionate about working with clients who want to step into a life they've always dreamed, to take a leap, as she did, and find their wings on the way down.
Lisa has been quoted and featured in Fast Company, FOX News, ZDNet and VentureBeat, has spoken at events including SxSWi, Web2.0 Expo, MLB.com Speaker Series, and Pandora's Women in Business Series and was named in FOX Business’ Little Pink Book’s Top 10 Women in Technology for 2012. She received her B.S. in Computer Science from UC Santa Barbara and her ICF coaching certification from The Coaches Training Institute.
She speaks German, English, y un poco Español, holds US and German citizenship, and splits her time between California, Sayulita, Lisbon and "somewhere exciting and new". It is a dream come true to lead retreats that allow her to bring together her passions for travel, coaching, epic trip planning and life design!
Diego Ulises Bernal is from Santa Cruz de Miramar, Nayarit. A small village that has an amazing wave where he started surfing at the age of 11. Diego is a master short boarder and has been National Champion as well as gone to the Pan-American Surf Games placing the highest in rankings for Mexico.
His patience in the water is undeniable and his love for surfing is an addiction. He enjoys sharing this love of surfing with anyone and everyone who wants to learn no matter what level!
Vanessa Morett is a well known & beloved yoga instructor and coordinator of several yoga programs here in Sayulita. Originally from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico she believes that yoga should be lived, on and off, the mat.
Over the last ten years she has been studying and experimenting with a diverse range of teachers and styles of yoga. For the last eight years her teaching focus has been Vinyasa and Hatha Flow. Currently, she is inspired to deepen her practice with advanced studies in Shadow Yoga working with the energetic system of the human body and the sister science of Yoga, the study of Ayurveda, which has prompted her to also teach Restorative Yoga. It is a joy for her to study and share these ancient practices!
“Be true, Yogis and Yoginis. We have to trust in the pure essence of the heart. Thinking only about asanas (poses) to make you stronger is not the achievement. It is the pure love of breathing into them.”
Amanda Shea has been with us since our very first retreat, making sure everything runs smoothly and seamlessly from start to finish. She’s the smiling face that greats you with fresh coffee in the morning and makes the most incredible treats to keep you fueled throughout the retreat. She has been coordinating international retreats for years and is a woman of many talents teaching yoga and catering events in California and Mexico.
Team Header Photo Cred: Spencer Ian Harris Photography