26 May 2010
Every morning, Dunia wakes up, opens her door, walks past the pink octopus on the wall and greets her dearest friend, the ocean. As a resident and employee of Los Tres Hermanos surf hostel in Playa Maderas, she works hard to be close to the beach and to help put her nephews through school. Dunia splits time as a surf instructor, masseuse and artisan to make ends meet, but even through the hard times, her spirit, and smile, are both unbreakable and she always manages to find the time to indulge in her true passion – surfing.
“Life is like a wave, you have to ride it and find the positive in it. No problems can be fixed with negativity,” she explains with a smile. Dunia smiles a lot.
She smiles as she talks about her dream of building a house close to the beach, and she smiles when I ask her why she hasn’t yet made an appearance on the Nicaraguan surf circuit.
“For me competition is not ‘real’ surf, because there are people watching, expecting a great trick. It’s not just you and the sea,” she says. However, I would love to compete because there are only foreign women on the circuit, and it’s about time a Nicaraguan won for once.” She laughs. Dunia laughs a lot too. The genuine warmth of her personality is contagious.
Someone else who has seen the warmth of her personality, as well as her natural talent on a board, is Nicaraguan surf champ Luis Chamorro. He has been training Dunia with the hope of passing his years of experience in surf competition on to her. They both agree it would be something to see more women in the water. But whether Dunia ever wins a competition or not, it won’t be due to her lack of heart. Bold when it comes to big waves, her bruises are only on the surface, and certainly her spirit will be able to navigate against any current that moves against her.
