Marta Mealha was born and raised in Portugal. Originally from the center of the Algarve, she as been coming to surf to this area since a very young age. 11 years ago she decided to move definitively to the Natural Park of Vicentina Coast (Southwest Algarve Portugal) and set up a surf school so she could live within the ocean surroundings, live among unspoiled nature and, of course, to SURF! So she has been a surf teacher for the last 15 years as well as a local surf guide. With a wide experience and knowledge of the local surf breaks she will be the best person to get you in touch with the ocean and help you enjoy the purest form of surfing -  with your body or with a surfboard. Together with yoga and nature walks, surfing is a great aspect in order to create a blanced mind and body during the retreats in Portugal. 

Read more about Marta's surfschool : www.frsurf.com 

Michaël Bijker is a spiritual teacher, yoga instructor and musician that has touched the lives of many people around the globe. He has been traveling around the world encountering more knowledge for his passion for body and mind work, especially Mediation, Yoga, Qi Gong, Tai-chi, Surfing and other techniques. 
After his traveling and self development he found this piece of paradise in Europe to be the ideal place to set up this kind of retreats with surfing yoga meditation and other activities. Focusing on the importance of connecting the mind and the body throughout the awareness that you can get from mind and body exercises helping each person to get to know it's real nature and essence, helping each person with a wonderful technique to free your mind .

Michaël is a certified 800hr YogaAlliance teacher with a yoga therapy certification from Paramanand institute of yoga sciences & research,Indore. The yoga taught  during the yoga course in this week will be in the styles of Iyengar, Hatha, Vinyasa and mindfulness to really be able to deepen your practice whether you are practicing for years already or complete beginner. 

Michaël is one of the best-selling autors of online meditation courses and Pranayama courses with over 100.000 students. See more about his work on : Yogalap.com

 Anina is our Swiss cook and she will be providing us with all the nutrients we need to make the body healthy and strong. She has been a cuisine artist for a great number of years and has a great passion for cooking and will make wonderful vegetarian taste experiences. Over the years she has developed a deliscious, nutritious and healthy menu for our yoga retreat here in the Algarve.  The food during this week will be vegetarian and mostly lactose and gluten-free.

If there are any special food requests we can most probably also provide you with that. 

Giulia Taiocchi - Guest Yoga & breathwork teacher
Giulia is a 500 hrs yoga alliance certified teacher and therapist, she studied at the Paramanand Institute of Yoga Science & Research in Indore, India. Her focus is on Meditation, Breath-work and Tibetan Sound Healing. She lives in Portugal where she works and keeps deepening her knowledge with Michaël Bijker, she has completed several Life Awareness Project courses including the “Life Awareness Breathwork Instructor Course” which has greatly improved her knowledge about how to teach pranayama and breathwork to others.

During her sessions, she create a safe space in which you can let yourself go and navigate within. Connect with your Life energy, your Beauty and your Truth. She consider breathwork/pranayama an essential part of yoga practice that allow you to Harmonizes, regenerates and revitalizes all layers of your being. Yoga is for her a life style and the practice is a self-recognition process that it will help you strengthen your physical body with asana (posture), embody your body with breathwork, and reconnect with your mind and heart through meditation.

Nick Mattia - Guest Yoga & breathwork teacher

Nick was grew up in the Peak District National Park in the heart of the UK. Always seeking to be surrounded in nature, where he feels most at home, his adventures have brought him to the Costa Vincentina Natural Park, SW Portugal. Which he's now called home since 2014. He believes that regular practice not only heals and strengthens the body and mind, through positive thought and action, it also helps guard against illness, disease and slows down the ageing process.
Nick loves to share his passion for yoga and studied mostly in the styles of Ashtanga and Yin. On the Pure Flow Motions retreats his classes are a wonderful combination of Yin and Yang (Vinyasa and Ashtanga) styles, Pranayama/Breathwork and Meditation. Michaël is a dear friend and also the teacher with whom he took his first ever yoga classes and continued learning with him and completed the “Life Awareness Breathwork Instructor Course”.