Soul

We are a company built on the belief that it is indeed possible to run a business that puts people and personality first, that aims to work with and for the local community, and that prioritises the group over self. This is living soulfully. It’s not about the present highly competitive and macho nature of the world of surfing. Rather, it revives and re-energises the original soul-surfing culture of the 1960s. It’s about a business consisting of individuals and teams that are honest, open and humble – and that don’t take themselves too seriously. It is about attending to what matters. It is about noticing. It is about being present in ourselves. This is hard work, but that’s why yoga’s a practice, and surfing’s more than just a sport, and why we aim to leave a positive legacy wherever we work, donating 1% of our total income to Surfers Against Sewage, founding and running the Kerala Kids Surf Club, and supporting the Kerala charity SISP. It’s not about being worthy, or attempting the impossible. It’s simply about listening to ourselves, to our bodies, to each other, and to the world in its many ramifications. More than listening, it’s positively engaging. It’s choosing to create something beautiful.

Balance

As a business, Soul and Surf champions the art of seeking ways that see the importance of living a balanced life, and in a way that is never worthy, nor preachy, but rather leads by example. It is about good practice, and managing money sensibly, and working hard. However, it’s also about so much more than this. It’s about making time to surf, and to practice yoga, or doing whatever it takes to achieve that balance. It’s about growing no bigger than it takes to deliver the ideal pursuit-of-the-now experience: 15 rooms maximum, and high levels of staff-to-guest ratios. It’s remembering that small is beautiful, and that lots of small locations is much better than a single big one. It’s about the emotional literacy of a company that seeks a balanced approach to everything it does, from the way it treats its guests, to the food it serves, to the music it plays, the activities it offers. It’s a way of being – of being comfortable with oneself and therefore with the world itself. This is not a cult. We’re not in it for the money. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s another way.

Risk

Soul and Surf is a company predicated on risk. It is the result of having given up jobs, travelling the world, and setting up in an area and in a business about which we knew next to nothing. As such, the notion of risk is central to everything we do. It’s acting on a dream. It’s placing one’s faith in the goodness of life, and particularly of our fellow human. It’s learning to fly the only way we know how: by taking off. It’s a ‘we can do’ mentality. It’s being unburdened by the long term, the fixed plan. It’s setting up your own Soul and Surf-based collective. It’s creating your own self-managing group. It’s taking a chance to grow something yourself, to do more than seasonal work. It’s taking the path of most resistance. It’s following your heart. Go ahead. Use Soul and Surf. Jump. Make that a leap of faith. You might fly, you might fall, but you’ll never know unless you try. Either way, risk – and don’t worry. All will be well.