Retreats
Your group. Your dates. Our water.
Everything a camp is, arranged around you instead of a calendar. Tell us who's coming and what you want out of the week. We'll build the rest.
You want a camp if
- You're coming alone or as a pair and want a group to land in.
- You'd rather pick a date off a list than plan anything.
- You want the price up front, in writing, today.
Next up: Opening Swell, 16-20 Oct 2026.
You want a retreat if
- You're bringing your own people. Friends, a studio, a team.
- Your dates don't line up with any of the six camps.
- You want to change the shape of it: more yoga, fewer sessions, a rest day on the backwaters, the whole villa to yourselves.
Usually a real reply within the hour.
Three we've run before
Starting points, not packages.
Every one of these has been rebuilt for the group that booked it. Pick the one closest to what you had in mind and we'll take it from there.
3 days · 2 nights
The Weekender
Arrive Friday pale, leave Sunday salted. Two dawn sessions, two sunset sessions, breakfast and dinner on the rooftop, and one backwater evening that will quietly become your favourite part. Built for people with jobs and just enough annual leave to be dangerous.
- 4 surf sessions
- Breakfast & dinner
- Shared or private room
- Airport pickup on request
Custom-quoted on WhatsApp. Dates + headcount
7 days · 6 nights
Seven Days of Salt
Long enough to actually get good. Daily sessions timed to the tide, video review that is exactly as humbling as it sounds, yoga on the terrace, one full rest day on the backwaters, and a last-night dinner where everyone swears they're coming back. Most do.
- 10 surf sessions
- Video coaching
- Breakfast & dinner
- Yoga
- Backwater trip
Custom-quoted on WhatsApp. Dates + headcount
5 days · 4 nights
Saltwater Sisters
A week in the water curated for women: freedom, confidence and a lot of laughing in the whitewash. It is built around women first, and anyone who wants that week is welcome to join it. Beginners genuinely welcome. Most of the group always is, and by Thursday nobody can tell.
- Daily surf sessions
- Curated for women
- Yoga
- Shared room
Custom-quoted on WhatsApp. Next dates on request
Women's surf retreats
Women's surf retreats in Varkala.
Some weeks we build around women: a group that learns together, laughs at the same wipeouts, and leaves steadier in the water than it arrived. It is about freedom and confidence as much as technique, and the technique comes too.
Built for women first, and open to anyone who wants that week. Beginners are very welcome, the house takes up to 14, and every day is shaped with the group before anyone books.
Ask about the next one
What goes in
Pick the parts. Leave the rest.
A retreat is assembled from the same pieces the camps are. We just change the ratio. Groups that come to train want two sessions a day; groups that come to switch off want one session, a long breakfast, and the backwaters at golden hour.
- Daily surf sessions
- Kerala breakfast
- Video analysis
- Ice bath & recovery
- Yoga
- Classroom surf theory
- Pool sessions (from November)
- Kappil backwater trip
- Dinners together & a closing barbecue
- Skate & slackline
- Beach transfers
- The whole villa, if you fill it
House capacity is 14, five private rooms and a four-bed dorm. Above that we'll help you find beds nearby, but the rooftop only holds so many and that is rather the point.
What a week here looks like
Long days, longer evenings.
Groups arrive with a plan and lose it by Wednesday, usually for the better.
A group gathered on the sand at dusk
The end of a day, from the top of the beach
A sample week
Five days, hour by hour.
Here is how one of our retreat weeks runs. Yours gets rebuilt around your group, but the rhythm holds: surf at seven, an ice bath late morning, something to learn in the afternoon, and dinner together.
Arrival
Welcome
- 5:30 pmArrival and check-in (until 6:15)
- 6:30 pmOpening circle, to meet the group
- 7:30 pmWelcome dinner
Day 1
Introduction
- 7:00 amTwo-hour surf session
- 11:00 amIce bath for recovery
- 5:00 pmYoga, to stretch for the days ahead
- 7:30 pmDinner
Day 2
Good habits
- 7:00 amTwo-hour surf session
- 3:30 pmClassroom theory
- 5:00 pmPaddling practice in the pool
- 7:30 pmDinner
Day 3
Integrating
- 7:00 amTwo-hour surf session
- 11:00 amIce bath
- 5:00 pmYoga
- 7:30 pmDinner
Day 4
Consistency
- 7:00 amTwo-hour surf session
- 11:00 amIce bath
- 3:30 pmVideo analysis and one-to-one feedback
- 7:30 pmDinner
Day 5
Last waves
- 7:00 amTwo-hour surf session
- 3:00 pmVideo analysis and feedback
- 5:00 pmFinal yoga: stretch, reflect, reset
- 7:30 pmBarbecue dinner to close the week
Breakfast and dinner are included; lunch is at your own cost. The pool session runs once the new pool opens in the first week of November 2026.
Watch: Kuma Surf's December surf retreat in Varkala
Planning
The practical part.
- How big
- Five private rooms and a four-bed dorm. Under that and you'll have space to spare; at fourteen you have the whole villa.
- The whole villa
- Take every bed and the whole rooftop and kitchen are yours for the week. Most groups over eight end up doing this.
- Bigger groups
- Above fourteen we'll help you find beds within a few minutes' walk and run the days from here. The table only seats so many, which is rather the point.
- How it's priced
- Built from the same pieces as a camp, in whatever ratio you want. Tell us the shape and we'll come back with a real number, not a per-head figure with an asterisk.
- Deposit
- A deposit holds the dates; the balance is settled before or on arrival. The exact split depends on the size of the booking and goes in your quote in writing.
- What we need from you
- Rough dates, headcount, and how much time you want in the water versus on the roof. Everything else we can work out together.
The brief
Tell us the shape of it.
Send the rough shape of the trip. Kuma will confirm availability, suggest an itinerary and come back with a real quote.
Nothing here is binding, and you don't need firm dates to start. “Eight of us, some week in February, mostly beginners” is plenty to work with.
House capacity is 14, five private rooms and a four-bed dorm.
Teams & offsites
Nobody bonds over a whiteboard.
Put a team in chest-height water where everyone is equally bad at something, and by day three the org chart has quietly stopped mattering. Fast WiFi and shaded tables for the half of the week you still have to work.
Tell us about your team