Foil Life Travel Show #4 - Ecuador Foil in Montanita Ecuador

Luc Moore (00:01.038) Just check to make sure it's loading and all that good stiff. Robert Ross (00:05.198) Don't forget to smile. Luc Moore (00:08.078) You always have to. It looks like it's doing all right. Luc Moore (00:20.416) Alright, hey Robert, it's nice to meet you man. Robert Ross (00:22.859) Yeah, good to be on. Thank you. Luc Moore (00:25.228) Yeah, absolutely. It's looking like you're somewhere warm. You got a t-shirt. You're not wearing any burkas or anything, so you're not in North America. Robert Ross (00:35.198) No man, I'm in Montenita, Ecuador. I've lived down here for about 15 years. And yeah, it's summer here. We're in the southern hemisphere. So it's absolutely beautiful here. Luc Moore (00:47.661) How did you end up there? Robert Ross (00:50.094) So I've been here 15 years. actually, I was living in LA for 10 years in Manhattan Beach and I was just an addicted surfer. And I'd been traveling to a bunch of spots for surfing. I actually at one point bought a thousand dollar VW bus and drove it to Costa Rica on a six month trip. I think that was between 2000 and 2002. Luc Moore (01:10.637) Sick. Robert Ross (01:16.718) And we ended up spending a lot of time in Nicaragua and surfing the whole coast from Pascuales and Nexpa, Mexico, Papoya and Colorado. That was in 2000, 2002. That was actually like before the internet. So for Nicaragua, there was like no maps at all. And we had to, we were ordering maps from surf magazines. And Nicaragua was a black hole. And our whole goal was to get to Pavonis. And we ended up spending so much time in Nicaragua that we went to Pavonis. Luc Moore (01:38.38) No way. Robert Ross (01:46.286) and just said, forget it, forget Costa Rica, let's go back to Nicaragua. was nobody there back then. So I love Nicaragua. by 2007, 2005, 2007, we started doing trips to Peru and Ecuador for surfing and just fell in love with it. Didn't know I was going to move there at the time. But yeah, that's when I started coming here. My first time in Ecuador was, I think, 2007. and just loved it. And I was fortunate enough, I was working for a bank at the time during the financial crisis. And we actually had invented the prepaid debit card, the company called Green Dot. And so when everybody else is crashing, we were actually IPO-ing. And yeah, yeah, yeah. So in 2008, 2009, weren't so bad for me. I made a bunch of money. And by 2011, I was ready to kind of jump ship. Luc Moore (02:29.547) Whoa. Luc Moore (02:33.002) No way. Robert Ross (02:44.662) And I wasn't enough to like retire in LA. LA was crazy expensive and I worked pretty hard. But I had done enough traveling around the world for surfing that I just knew that I had enough and it was time to check out. So started in 2009 thinking it was between Nicaragua and Ecuador. And I had visited Montanita a couple of times and just loved it here. It was, it felt like Costa Rica in 1999. was just, you know, it was just a fantastic place. Luc Moore (02:50.988) Big time. Robert Ross (03:14.166) Nicaragua at the time, there wasn't a lot going on. The surf was great. I thought I might get bored. And this place had a lot of action. So 2011, I made the trip down here and just fell in love. here since. Been cool. Yeah. Luc Moore (03:19.244) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (03:28.62) And obviously this was early on so this is like any obviously you're pretty brave Compared to a lot a lot of us. I'm just thinking like we went down. think we went down much later Robert Ross (03:36.866) I'm Robert Ross (03:40.661) Yeah, no, I think there were bets on how long I would last and I probably the over-under was like three to six months. but no, I stuck it out and it was, I kind of love the chaos of it. love the dirt roads. you know, I didn't bugs don't bother me. Didn't, didn't really bother me at all. The lack of electricity, lack of water, septic. was like going back in time. gotta ATV and some machetes and a pickup truck and yeah, it was fun. So I started, didn't know what I was gonna do when I got down here, but just kind of fell into vacation rentals. So in 2012, no 2013, we opened our first four vacation rentals in Montanita, just outside of a town. Yeah, just outside of Montanita, pulling it up. Cool. Luc Moore (04:20.363) All right. Luc Moore (04:35.574) Yeah, okay. Robert Ross (04:36.406) Yeah, so we are about two hours from Ecuador's financial capital, Guayaquil. So there's non-stops to Guayaquil from Miami, from Atlanta, from New York, and then you can also get to Quito from Houston. yeah, so there's not a ton of non-stops right now. Usually the best flights are through, on Copa Airlines through Panama City. And then once you're there, we go and we run and pick people up all the time in Guayaquil. Yeah, so. So yeah, I opened my first four vacation rentals in 2012. And back then it was before Airbnb. And I remember looking in Tamarindo, how many vacation rentals are in Tamarindo? There was 2000. And I looked here and there was four. And so we doubled the number of vacation rentals here in Montenegro up to eight back then. And now it's grown a lot. Yeah, but it just took off right away. Vacation rentals back then in South America weren't really part of the culture. So Luc Moore (05:06.709) What's the Luc Moore (05:21.003) You Luc Moore (05:25.611) wow, congrats. Robert Ross (05:34.637) The way we ended up having a hotel was, is that everybody kept checking in and asking where reception was. And I kept wanting to say, no, no, no, no, no, there's no reception. Here's the keys. I'll see you in a week. And they're like, no, no, no, we don't do that here. Cause we had a lot of guests from Chile and Columbia and Argentina. And it hadn't really kind of entered the culture of vacation run onsite and really started there yet. And so we ended up putting in a reception and a pool and a restaurant. And then we built a couple of hotel rooms. Luc Moore (05:43.442) Yeah Robert Ross (06:02.286) And yeah, now we've got about 15 condos and another 15 hotel rooms and two or three pools, a restaurant, a gym. So it's grown a lot. And yeah, we built it slow. It's about two and a half acres of a mountain in front of the town overlooking the town. It's beautiful. And then my house is right next to the hotel. So I'm always around working at the hotel. Keep all my foil stuff in my boat at the hotel. Luc Moore (06:31.978) Nice. Robert Ross (06:31.998) for towing. Ecuador foil sign there now. Bringing foil. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, foiling is my passion project. I was telling you before the hotel kind of operates, you know, no matter what, with or without me, which is cool at this point, we've got the real estate company with lots that's around the hotel. And then Ecuador foil is my passion project. That's what I like to do when I'm most involved with gases when I bring them down for foiling and we take them out in the boat, we take them out to our Luc Moore (06:36.075) It's hard to miss. Robert Ross (07:02.04) to our beautiful foiling spots, which we're fortunate that it just so happens that they're everywhere here. It's just a really, really foily place. So yeah, everybody that knows South America for surfing knows that there's a lot of traffic that goes to Peru. Everybody loves Peru. Luc Moore (07:12.481) that's awesome. Luc Moore (07:21.458) Mm-hmm. Yeah, Chocoma, all that stuff. Robert Ross (07:24.302) Yeah. And I love Peru. I've been going there for, I don't know how many times I've been there, 10, 15 times. Mancora, the north of Peru is kind of like our cousin. It's a very similar town to, to Montanita and you can take a nonstop bus from here to Mancora. You know, I've done that a bunch of times. That's actually how I got into kite surfing because I kite surf also. I took a roundabout route to foiling. started surfing, then I got into kiting and then I kite foiling and then back into prone and tow. And it was kind of. and then it winging. So, but that was my journey was that I was down in Peru and the swell stopped and it was just blasting wind. And I took a kite surf lesson. And then all of a sudden my kite surf journey started. Northern Peru, amazing kite surfing. But yeah, and know, Ecuador isn't famous like Peru for waves because the waves aren't like heaving barrels. We have these reefy, soft, amazing foil waves. Luc Moore (08:04.157) Yeah. Luc Moore (08:18.995) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (08:23.375) that are great, know, our mountaineer does a wave a lot like trestles. For all you guys who've surfed trestles before, it's just this perfect right point break. It's like a skate park versus a lot of people are going to Peru to get in these heaving barrels of Cabo Blanco or places like that. But we have these just amazing offshore reefs that are really soft and perfect for foiling. But it's a spot with Pacific groundswells. So we have waves year round. North swell, south swell, it's like a machine that never turns off. Especially for foiling, because we don't need much. We have beach break and reefs and pulling it up, Luc Moore (09:02.739) Here, let's pull up for those on audio, we're just gonna pull up the town. What is the town like? It doesn't look that big. So do know how many thousands of people live there? Robert Ross (09:12.683) No, mean, yeah, if anybody's been in kind of a cool surf town like Sayulita or Tamarindo, a lot of these kind of Costa Rican surf towns, it feels a lot like that. San Juan del Sur would be the closest comparison in Nicaragua. And yeah, so just outside our door, there's probably 50 or 100. bars and restaurants, half of them made of bamboo, hammocks, piña coladas, that kind of town. It's got a super lively nightlife. there's probably a couple thousand people that live here, but on the weekends we get just a piling of people, five, 10,000 people, especially for holidays. So super cool town. The main point break is right in town. So the town was built around the surf spot. Luc Moore (09:46.643) Yeah. Luc Moore (10:05.289) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (10:08.275) surfing is probably one of the most popular sports in the country. And then, but all around, so we have beach break everywhere and it's not like a heaving beach break. It's kind of like a mushy beach break. So when the waves are small, we can, I, I tow boogie and we tow and we prone the beach break. And then as it gets over like waist high, cause our beach break, even when it's like small is head high. But then we have these reefs that are just all by ourselves. And that's all within like 10 minutes of here. And all these waves were basically year round, it's 80 degrees. We foil all by ourselves. We have no competition from surfers. And there's just reefs everywhere. In this area, my favorite spots are kind of the offshore reefs. So they're breaking a couple hundred meters. You can prone them, we tow them. Luc Moore (10:45.079) wow, okay. Robert Ross (11:06.755) I like to boogie them when they're small. I have a full drive. I don't do a lot of full drive anymore because we just have so many waves and no competition that I just found that I didn't want all that extra stuff on the board and the, yeah, the motor and the mast. So it was just unnecessary here, but I do have a full drive and I loved it when I was doing more, when I'm in windy spots, I'll use the full drive. Luc Moore (11:09.276) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (11:19.932) Yeah, that's fair. Luc Moore (11:33.211) Mm-hmm. Okay. What is... Robert Ross (11:36.496) So yeah, so I live in two places. Where my hotel is is in Montanita. And then, okay, yeah. Where my hotel is is, I won't talk with my hands, is in Montanita. then, Montanita is pretty glassy year round. So a windy day for us is like five to seven knots. And then we have a protected cove. So that wind doesn't even get into the cove. Luc Moore (11:40.464) Mm-hmm. don't hit your desk there. We're going to get all that feedback. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. There you go. Okay. Luc Moore (11:58.343) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (12:03.823) So you can really prone and tow pretty much year round because we don't really get any wind here. But up the coast about two hours, I usually keep a second home and that's our kite surf spot. And there from June through December, the wind is from about 14 to 18 knots. And also, yeah, it's windy there and it's Luc Moore (12:19.089) Okay. Luc Moore (12:28.052) all right, that's good. Robert Ross (12:31.703) It's the same thermal winds that they get in Peru. So it's a thermal wind that comes from the South. It's side on, so perfect direction. And I'd say average is probably 15. And then same offshore reef. So there's this reef that is just perfect for winging. can wing waves up to double overhead super comfortably. I'll usually use like a five wing. I use a 65 liter board and You know, I'm using my code 850 or not my 810. and so that's kind of like a normal setup for there in waves. And again, super consistent waves year, wait waves for, for wind, from June and through December. and so yeah, we, there's a, just a few wingers up there. Winging hasn't really, there's a lot of up there. There's like everybody up there has a kite background. like down here in Montanito, we came from a surfing background up there. They come from a kite background. So. Luc Moore (13:09.191) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (13:29.467) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (13:31.375) When I'm up there, I'm winging and we do a lot of toe foil up there. I have a boat up there also. Yeah, so really amazing. And there we have left points. So there's like four or five left points that we tow. If you're on my Instagram or my YouTube, there's some pages of that. There's some videos of that. And then down here, it's more reefs and we have a boat down here too. So yeah, so I go back in between the two depending on the season and depending on my kids. Luc Moore (13:34.958) sick. Nice. Luc Moore (13:43.578) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (13:58.001) So, yeah, no, that's fair. So is wind more summertime thing down there? If waves and stuff is obviously more winter. Robert Ross (14:03.578) So yeah, we're in our glassy season right now. So from December through May, it's glass on the whole coast. So even up there, we're towing up there, they don't have any wind. There's probably wind for kite foil out there from about April, but really no real good wind until June, end of May, June. And then in June, we get kind of like an overcast weather here. Still prone every day. and tow every day. The water temperature probably goes from like 80 to like 77. So I'll wear a spring suit because I'm a wimp these days when it comes to formal activities. 77 is cold for me. I don't even surf when I go, I don't even get in the water when I go to LA anymore. I'm just, it's too cold for me to think about. Yeah, I hyperventilate. Yeah, I'm allergic to cold water and crowds these days. I've been here for so long, you know? Luc Moore (14:43.91) Fair enough. Yeah, that's fair. Luc Moore (14:51.686) It's too cold yeah. Luc Moore (15:00.134) Fair. So the swimming and scuba or snorkeling must be amazing then too, right? Like with the reefs and with the fact that the water can be fairly calm sometimes. Robert Ross (15:10.094) Yeah, yeah, so from my hotel we do tours of nearby islands where you can snorkel and scuba dive and then we have the Galapagos here. So the Galapagos is part of Ecuador. So that's just world class diving. So a lot of people that might come to us also might go to Galapagos if they're really, really into diving. Because once you're here, you're only two hours from Galapagos. So I've actually started to think about Luc Moore (15:22.341) yeah. Luc Moore (15:31.194) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (15:36.08) So why'd you fall in love with? Robert Ross (15:37.979) probably four or five times. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's cool. I like it a lot. It feels a lot like where I am and the waves frankly are better here. So I went a few times for the novelty of it. I brought my family there a few times. I surfed it. I haven't foiled it there. My buddy just foiled it the other day. There's one guy out there doing wing. And yeah, in the future I could see doing tours and stuff out there. They're kind of weird out there. They don't allow kiting. Luc Moore (15:40.559) Whoa, no way. Luc Moore (15:48.431) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (16:07.673) Okay. Yeah, it makes sense. Robert Ross (16:07.856) because of the birds, but there's no laws yet about winging. And I am friends with the guys out there. So at some point we're probably gonna start looking to do some stuff out there. It's windy out there. It's super windy. So there's definitely an opportunity. In Galapagos? As soon as you get off the airplane, it's 20 knots. But... Luc Moore (16:13.903) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (16:25.221) What's that mean? 20 to 30 or? Yeah. Robert Ross (16:35.088) I'm thinking about the Galapagos. I don't want to spend a lot of time talking about the Galapagos because we can't really go there. But the whole island is a nature reserve and you only really have access to like five or 10 % of the island, 5 % of the island and the rest you have to go by boat. And so it's a very, very tricky place to find the conditions that you need. Like even though it's 20 knots when you get off the plane, you can't actually get in the water there. You have to go to the other side of the island and come back probably. So yeah. Luc Moore (16:37.945) Yeah, fair, Yeah. Luc Moore (16:43.993) Yes, definitely. Robert Ross (17:02.704) We'll crack that code. We just haven't done it yet. Luc Moore (17:02.92) fair enough. Fair enough. So what skill levels do you guys cater to at your school? They're beginner all the way up to advanced or Robert Ross (17:08.015) Yeah. Robert Ross (17:16.216) Yeah, so for prone and tow, especially prone for all you guys that want to learn tow, excuse me, that want to learn prone, we have the easiest conditions in the world to learn from. We have this spot, it's called a laboratory and it's a reef that breaks probably two to 300 meters out. And you paddle out there and the wave, can actually catch the wave, like I'll drop into big waves there on the outside. Luc Moore (17:28.909) Okay Robert Ross (17:45.211) But if you're not ready for that, then you just sit inside about 30 meters and you just let the water push you, white water hits you. The white water pushes you and you just go straight. It's the easiest thing in the world to do. And then you stand up. And if anybody's learned a longboard before, it's kind of the same process. You're just going straight, stand up, and you can do that a hundred times in a session. So it's the easiest place in the world to learn prone. And for you advanced guys, it's actually fantastic because you can move outside. The waves are bigger. It's like this perfect reef where you can connect, you know, for all you guys that like to pump and connect waves, you can connect 10, 15, 20 waves. There's different peaks all over the place. Warm water and we're all by ourselves. So it's kind of got a little bit for everything. Our most recent tour was cool because it was like a full drive guide that just didn't have a lot of chance to do prone. And we had a Luc Moore (18:39.534) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (18:40.891) Croning day one up at Cruisin' Around and then also for tow. It's a really great place to tow. He had never actually successfully into a wave before. And we had him in waves right away. Like he just taught him to tow real quick and he was up jumping into waves right away. So really easy place, especially for you guys that are in, for crowded places. We have no crowds, warm water. Luc Moore (18:52.969) sick, okay. Luc Moore (19:07.693) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (19:10.063) No competition. Yeah. So I know in a lot of places, especially in California, there's fantastic waves for prone, but you just can't access the waves because there too many surfers. We just don't have that problem here. So really, really a great place. And then for as far as winging and wind sports, I love to do or would love to do, because we haven't done one yet, but I'm a good winger, especially in waves, very good in waves. Luc Moore (19:28.653) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (19:39.886) And I know the coast really well. So my, my wing stuff is more for intermediate advanced. I'm not going to do lessons in winging because I'm not certified in that. And I can recommend a school probably better than all those guys in winging, but I don't actually don't teach winging. But what we do do is take people on tours for winging. So we would start in the wind place and we could come down the coast, winging in different spots. And then also at my hotel, proning. So you could kind of combine a wing prone. Luc Moore (19:52.803) Sure. Robert Ross (20:09.393) toe tour all into one and we'd probably do it just based on the conditions. So in the spot, you know, I live there too, and we'd be staying right in front of the spot where you can wing in that place. If it's windy, it's kind of hard to prone because the wind hits from like, it'll already be like eight to 10 knots at like 7 a.m. So when you're there, you're really focused on wind sports. And then if you want to get prone and toe, then we move down the coast. Luc Moore (20:13.783) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (20:36.945) to my place, it's just two hours away. And then you got like a protected cove and you could do boats. So for wind sports, would, same with downwind, downwind would be the same. We do down, there's nobody here doing sup downwind. I just got a parowing, so I'll start parowinging this season. I still need a board. My parowing? I've just added a new parowing. I mean, I said this about, Luc Moore (20:56.417) How is that? Yeah. How's that journey? Robert Ross (21:06.361) winging and winging kicked my ass for like three weeks, know, but like, it'll be easy. And then you get your ass handed to you for three weeks and then it kind of clicks. I feel like power wing will be the same because I'm a good kiter. I twin tip and I kited it with a surfboard for two, three years. And then I kite foiled and I tow. So I feel like I'm going to be able to figure it out, but probably get my ass handed to me for two, three weeks. Luc Moore (21:28.674) It takes a little while. It's pretty tricky. Do you guys offer standard lessons like one hour, two hour lessons or is it more kind of these retreat kind of boutique more style things where you come for a little bit of a longer period and you go to different places every day? Robert Ross (21:30.853) Yeah. Robert Ross (21:43.578) Yeah, so for prone and toe, we definitely have lessons. Check out at Mentalfoil. He's our Ecuadorian guide. He's an amazing prone foiler, probably one of, if not the best in South America. I haven't seen a lot of guys better than him in South Americans or Central America. Just a really, really talented guy. And he's our teacher for prone. For toe, I'll teach because I just like to go. So yeah, I bring people out in the boat. Luc Moore (22:09.634) Yeah, definitely. Robert Ross (22:13.359) I actually do all the lessons too for prone, but because I like to employ the locals, like if that's Menthol's thing, he's our guide. He'll pick you up at the airport, he'll be your guide. And then we have another guy named Paul who helps me with towing and he's learning to tow also. Menthol is anti-motor, so he just does prone. He doesn't do anything with a motor, he's excited. Luc Moore (22:21.388) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (22:36.676) fair, yeah, some people are completely... Robert Ross (22:39.825) But he was such a good surfer, he doesn't need to. he's like, he's he's like one of those few guys that will take a double overhead wave and he'll prone it. He'll just drop in like he's on a surfboard. It's amazing. Yeah. So, so yeah. So for prone and toe, we do lessons. I like to work it into a tour. Like if you're coming down here, I prefer to work it into a tour. But if you just want a la carte, it's about $125 a day. And that includes, yeah. Luc Moore (22:52.374) Whoa. Luc Moore (23:07.403) All right, okay. Hmm, that's pretty good. Robert Ross (23:09.743) That includes, yeah, guide, car, and about two to three hours. So yeah, because you can't really, the foil spots, you really need us to take you to because they're a little bit hidden. And then anybody who's surfed or foiled in South America knows that the tides here are crazy. So you can show up on the wrong tide and it'll be a lake. And then two hours later, it'll be the best spot you've ever seen. Luc Moore (23:16.566) Hmm. Luc Moore (23:31.234) you Luc Moore (23:38.337) Okay, good to know. Robert Ross (23:38.625) So it's not that easy to just roll into town and foil. You really have to know where to look. Luc Moore (23:44.929) Do you guys have stuff, like do we need to bring our own equipment? Robert Ross (23:49.029) No, so I have a bunch of stuff to rent. I have code, I personally write code, so there's some code stuff too. Although I've been on the access surge lately, which is cool. I like that. I like that foil. Yeah, yeah. So I started on access and switched to code and now I'm mainly between the A10X and the surge 890. And then I have a bunch of prone boards, a bunch of wings. Luc Moore (24:02.165) Yeah, they're good. They're a good company. Yeah. Robert Ross (24:19.09) bunch of wing boards. I'm 80 kilos. So if you're anywhere in that range, then I'm going to have a bunch of stuff for you. If you're like much heavier, you know, I probably don't have that much stuff for you, but I do have some big wings. think my biggest wing is like a Spitfire 1030. So that's a good size for owner, learning the wing. Yeah, for, I mean, I would definitely, I don't want to be, I would definitely teach winging. Luc Moore (24:32.447) Mm. Luc Moore (24:36.522) Okay, alright. Robert Ross (24:48.914) to somebody that's already got some experience. Because I don't have a 120 liter board. So, but there are a couple of schools here that can help you with that. So we can get them. Luc Moore (24:54.453) Mm-hmm Luc Moore (24:59.423) Yeah, but it sounds more like, which is one thing that would really help my foiling is learn how to prone a bit more. I got into windsurfing and my brother kites, but we don't surf, surf. But that could be something quite interesting to learn how to drop in. And then not only that, but connect more with pumping and via that, that would be a pretty fun time. It looks like you're so free with nothing on you. Robert Ross (25:10.652) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (25:18.64) Man, this is really just... Yeah, this is just the best place to learn to learn prone. We can teach anybody prone here. It is so easy to learn. then we've since I've taught a bunch of locals, I've taught most people here who are coding. taught we have the equipment. So we have really good equipment that's been tested for learning. So it's cool. But the big thing is waves and no crowds. the key elements here that you're not competing with surfers for waves, you're just all by yourself out there. Luc Moore (25:43.872) No, that's a good selling feature. Robert Ross (25:51.896) conditions. Luc Moore (25:53.258) Wow. Do you recommend people renting their own cars or do you recommend getting picked up staying at the resort or the hotel? Robert Ross (26:00.185) No, I recommend booking a full tour through us. That way we go and pick you up. We're following with you every day. So we're following with you from three to six hours per day when you're staying here with us. We don't provide food. We don't do an all-inclusive food thing because you don't need it. We have so many great restaurants here, great seafood. Luc Moore (26:03.37) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (26:21.81) just like an arm's length away. So we like to give people the option to go out in town, have some food and drinks and then, yeah, so that's great. Also, it's a great family spot. So our hotel, because we've got the 50 brandos, the one, two and three bedroom units. So if you wanna come down with two to three kids, super comfortable. Luc Moore (26:33.184) Hmm, okay, good to know. Robert Ross (26:43.098) for children in our condos. We have great pools, very safe. So everything is really good for families too. Luc Moore (26:52.33) How many do you have now? Two? Three? You have, how many do you have now? You just said, cause we were talking before, you just said you had twins. So do you have more than two? Robert Ross (27:01.586) I've got five kids, we're all born in Ecuador. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's cool. I got three kids here and then I have two kids elsewhere, but all were born in Ecuador. So yeah, I have a four year old and twins who are one month old. Luc Moore (27:03.311) shit. wow, congrats. Luc Moore (27:16.448) Oh, whoa, okay, that's yeah, you would be busy with twin one month old. My buddy had twins and they were like eight months and he gave them both to me. He said, good luck. Have fun. I was like, what do I do? Where are you going? Just takes off on me. Robert Ross (27:17.978) Yeah, the trash. Robert Ross (27:26.074) Yeah. The first couple of weeks is just like, my gosh, I don't know how we're to do this. And then I kind of, you get into a routine and it works. I was going to say the other thing about here for families is for every, know everybody's going to Chicama right now and Chicama is amazing. I love Chicama and it's, foil paradise, but I brought my wife there and she was ready to get on a bus and come home. Luc Moore (27:43.251) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Luc Moore (27:52.649) Okay, yeah. Robert Ross (27:53.436) I told her we're gonna extend the trip and she's like, I'm not, I'm getting on a bus, I'm going back to Ecuador. Because it's brutal for families, it's just, it's amazing when we're in the water, but it's, so Ecuador where we live is the opposite. It's warm water, it's tropical, it's green, there's restaurants and bars and other tours and things to do for your wife, your spouse. So it's really a fantastic place. In good news. Luc Moore (28:17.888) Alright, and you're not worried about them going off on their own and going to check out stuff while you're on the water? You don't really need to worry about that? No? Okay. Robert Ross (28:24.111) No, no, not at all. Where we are super safe and really, really like enjoyable for the whole family, not just for the guy in the water. Luc Moore (28:28.276) Nice. Luc Moore (28:33.105) Now, because it's foiling, you know I'm gonna ask local hospitals not too far away. Robert Ross (28:38.391) Yeah, yeah, we have a hospital here. It's right next to the cemetery. So it's usually where people go to die. Luc Moore (28:44.159) Okay, all right, so it's either or. All right, good to know. Robert Ross (28:50.671) Yeah, so yeah, we do have a hospital, but I wouldn't recommend getting any complex surgeries there. We are, it's a pretty remote place. So we're two hours away from a major city. We haven't had an incident. But yeah, up in the wind spot where, two hours north, great hospitals there. That's where I had all my kids. We usually, if we have anything major, we'll go up there. And here we have a bunch of clinics and smaller, smaller places. We actually have a doctor that just comes to the, the, to the hotel for people. So if something happens, stitches, yeah, we just bring them. Usually for people who are hungover and need like an IV, but yeah, but we bring them over for, for stitches. If people get cut, that kind of thing. So yeah, we can bring a doctor right to the hotel. Luc Moore (29:27.067) alright. Mm-hmm. Fair, not foiling related. Luc Moore (29:44.574) Anything else you want to add for people out there who have never been and are kind of interested in exploring a little bit more off the beaten path? Luc Moore (29:56.082) Yeah. Hmm. School unique. Guess you're, you're going to be probably. Yeah, we kind of followed most of it. And do you host events, clinics, communities? So for looping back into the family thing, or even looping back for people who want to stay a little bit longer, for example, if they're a bit nomadic, and some of those units obviously have kitchens and you can cook in them, get groceries if you don't want to go out every night kind of thing. So you guys are offering like, Robert Ross (30:02.799) Make it through anything? Wow. Luc Moore (30:26.044) the full gamut of possibilities for somebody coming down. Robert Ross (30:29.863) Yeah, yeah, people wanted to extend their stay. Absolutely. We can take people for weeks and months. At that point, I'd probably recommend figuring out a way to get a car or a bike. But yeah, I mean, it's really a fantastic place. So anybody who come would just really love it for full length. So on another, I've fooled all over the world. So I've actually traveled, I started off traveling the world for surfing. Luc Moore (30:39.858) Yeah, for sure. Robert Ross (30:56.593) And then I, I'd surfing and now for foiling. So I've traveled to foil in Peru, in Brazil, in Dominican Republic, in the Philippines, in Australia, in California, in Vietnam. and I've winged and prone in all of these places. And I have to say that Ecuador, I go to all these places and I miss home. Luc Moore (31:22.289) No way. All right. Robert Ross (31:23.475) have such amazing foiling conditions year round that are super accessible. And especially if you like waves, if waves your thing, this is just a great spot because it's always on and it's always, you know, and if you do different disciplines, if you wing, if you tow, if you, if you prone, there's never a day where you're out of the water. I think I probably get 340 days a year foiling. Luc Moore (31:51.964) Holy shit, that's impressive. Robert Ross (31:53.636) always on. Yeah. If you if you do all these different sports like I do, there's never a day where you're not in the water and waves in Ecuador. And it's just really the stretch of coast. We actually have one more wave that we're trying that we're going to conquer this year. We have a right that's as long as Chicama. And it's it's two hours in the other direction. So two hours south. Luc Moore (32:14.265) really? Robert Ross (32:21.22) It's a wave that we've been surfing for forever, 15 years. It takes a south swell just like Chicama and it's a right. We need a boat, so we need to tow it. It gets tricky. The drop is tricky proning. We tried proning it last year and we kind of had to sit halfway up the wave and halfway up the wave was about four minutes on foil without connecting. So that's just carving. Luc Moore (32:45.03) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (32:49.904) four minutes to the beach and that was only halfway. because further out the wave was just too big in order to prone it. So we're get the boat there this year and we should be including that in our tours in the next year or two. So if we can just get the boat there and get a few good sessions in it then we'll start including that. Needs a big swell. It's not quite as sensitive as Chicama. Luc Moore (32:59.634) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (33:17.308) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (33:18.42) but it's as long and as rippable and it's a right. So, uh, yeah, that'll happen in the next, probably this season. It's a South swell spot. It's a Bay on North swells. So Montanito where I live is cool because we get North and South. So it's year round waves. That's a South swell spot. So we'll start breaking in the next few months. Really just runs from like March until, uh, November, December. Um, and yeah, we'll get the boat down there and get some video. Luc Moore (33:24.198) Hey man. Luc Moore (33:34.822) Mm-hmm. Robert Ross (33:48.307) I posted a few grainy videos, but you couldn't really tell how good it was because we weren't on the outside. We didn't have a drone. We had a guy with a camera on. It just didn't look right. Luc Moore (33:56.038) Fair, fair. Man, that sounds pretty epic, if you ask me, especially for most of us Canadians and Americans right now, it's pretty chilly. And they're looking for a lot of spots. I know some buddies right now just got back from Columbia and they kind of love that area of the world. And I spent a lot of time in Maui last year at the Ka'a foil park and that place was absolutely amazing for how mushy it was and how I thought. Robert Ross (34:06.109) Yeah, get down here. Luc Moore (34:22.841) the whole island over there was crazy advanced, but you have spots that you can go. But this does sound very similar to that car wave where it's more of a shoulder and it's not barreling and you can kind of get yourself in trouble and it's not that critical, which is important. Robert Ross (34:29.837) huh. Robert Ross (34:35.956) Yeah, I mean, the big thing here is being able to take off straight and just let the white water push you like you're on a longboard. And then it's kind of got a reform. So you take off straight, the white water disappears and the wave kind of jocks up and reforms. And then you're just kind of carving, you're doing S's and rights. And so it's just this easy entry for guys that haven't done a lot of prone. You don't have to take off on the face of the wave. You just kind of let the wave pick you up, hit you and pick you up, which is the best way to learn. Luc Moore (34:39.578) Okay. All right. Luc Moore (34:49.211) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (35:03.067) That's how I surf. It's perfect. Robert Ross (35:05.436) Yeah, exactly. And it reforms. So from the reform, you're still got 200 meters on the wave. And that's assuming, yeah, that's assuming that you're not connecting anything. So if you're good enough, if you're already winging and doing other, you can probably already pump. So you can just kind of exit the wave and pump out. So I'll have days, especially when it's big, where I don't want to drop in on something that's huge. So I'll catch one of the reforms on the inside, pump out and get into a big wave. Cool. Yeah. Luc Moore (35:12.508) sick, yeah, that's awesome. Luc Moore (35:32.996) Mm-hmm. Sweet man. Well, hey, thanks for taking the time and introducing your spot and what's the easiest way for people to find you? Robert Ross (35:43.506) Yeah, so if you message Ecuador foil on Instagram or yeah, that would probably be the easiest way. I think my WhatsApp is on there. So I'm always on WhatsApp. So through Instagram, Ecuador foil. Also, please follow us on YouTube. We have an Ecuador foil with some amazing videos of the conditions here. Probably not enough winging videos because I have more photographers in Montanito around my hotel. I'll get some more videos out there this year, but a lot of good content on the prone conditions. So yeah, my contact number is on there through the hotel. The hotel gets a lot of messages, just non foil related messages. So if you message the hotel, it won't always make it to me. You might get somebody in reception. So I'd recommend going through the hotel is Montanita States the me hotel But I'd recommend for foiling related trips message me through the Ecuador foil Instagram site or my whatsapp, which is Luc Moore (36:37.723) Mm-hmm. Luc Moore (36:44.155) All right, Well, we're gonna have to connect, because it would be pretty fun to bring down a group and get some, a clinic going on down there. I think that would be absolutely epic. And yeah, anyways, thanks for coming on. It was great to chat with you. Robert Ross (36:58.142) Yeah, I appreciate it. Good to meet you, Luke. Luc Moore (37:00.749) Awesome guys. hey, thanks everybody for joining us. We'll catch you in the next one.