Social Workout

Retreats

Stand-Up Paddleboard and Yoga Retreat in Puerto Rico

• Who: Jessica Bellofatto of KamaDeva Yoga and Gina Bradley of Paddle Diva
• What: The October version of the retreat we sent our amazing Love Challenge winner Llaves on this spring. (Read up on her adventures for insider insight). Two-a-day yoga classes, plus stand-up paddling tours, surfing, swimming, general beachy bliss.
• When: October 21-25, 2010
• Where: Rincon, Puerto Rico, with accommodations at Casa Azul and Casa Isleña Inn.

Beach Om

The Hamptons Falls For Paddle Yoga

Today's New York Times tries to define the essence of the Hamptons this summer. Some years, the essence of the Hamptons is Lizzie Grubman backing her SUV into a crowd outside a nightclub. This year, apparently, the essence of the Hamptons is stand-up pabbleboarding + yoga + s'mores:

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Retreats

Five Days of Yoga, Surfing, and Paddleboarding in Puerto Rico

• Who: Jessica Bellofatto of KamaDeva Yoga and Gina Bradley of Paddle Diva
• What: Maybe you recognize this retreat —it's the very one we're sending our Love Challenge winner, Llaves, on. But you don't have to win to go! It's called capitalism, baby, and you can buy your way into this Puerto Rican beach escape and its sweet surf breaks, daily yoga sessions, stand-up paddle boarding lessons and tours, and daily personal training sessions.
• When: April 8 - 12, 2010

Retreats

Escape to Shape in Marrakech

• Who: Jessica Bellofatto of KamaDeva Yoga
• What: 7 days in Morocco, with yoga, cooking classes, hiking, tours, and belly dancing lessons.
• When: May 8 -15, 2010
• Where: Accommodations at a private villa outside Marrakech, Morocco. 
• Why: This trip is equal parts fitness and culture. You get yoga-triathlete Jessica Bellofatto as an instructor, and Escape To Shape, "a traveling spa" company as your travel agent, with lots of attention paid to details like guided hikes through the Atlas Mountains and authentic Berber meals. 

Your Playlists

Jessica Bellofatto's Favorite Yoga Music

Collectively, we like yoga music, so long as it's the right kind of yoga music. Consensus is chill is best. Urbansherpa shared her chill and fabulous yoga playlist back in '09, but if you're looking to refresh your rotation or gather some ammo to nudge the teacher who has the Hare Krishna chanting on eternal repeat toward a brighter future, we've got ideas. After Jessica Bellofatto of KamaDeva Yoga finished telling us about life as a yoga-triathlete, we asked her about her favorite yoga music. Her top picks: 

1. Anything Neil Young
2. Stairway to Heaven
3. Tracy Chapman — always amazing
4. Eva Cassidy
5. The Dead Man Walking soundtrack 
6. The very beautiful Into the Wild soundtrack 

Curious souls can listen to the Into the Wild soundtrack after the jump. 

My Body

Jessica Bellofatto on Yoga Privates and Being a Yogi-Triathlete

Jessica Bellofatto is the Founder and Director of KamaDeva Yoga in East Hampton. 

I’ve always been a runner, but a pretty casual runner, and about six years back I was driving by Long Beach where there was this triathlon going on. There were hundreds of people in the water, and I was like, I want to do that. It was only about two or three years ago that I started getting more serious about it. I got on a road bike and started cycling outside.

A lot of people want yoga to be what keeps them in shape. They want it to provide the stretch, strengthening, and cardio. But bringing in the swimming and biking and running, that’s actually what brought me into balance, and it means yoga doesn’t have to be everything. So it can be what it is, and I can actually go deeper into it. I’ve always been pretty flexible, things came pretty easy to me, but you definitely get tight from triathlon training, and now that I feel things more quickly and have to work with that resistance, it’s just more interesting.  

Retreats

Yoga and Samba Drumming in Trocones, Mexico

• Who: Jessica Bellofatto, Founder and Director of KamaDeva Yoga in East Hampton, and Percussionist Richard Siegler
• What: A tropical beach, two yoga classes a day, and daily sunset samba drumming workshops.
• When: February 6 - 13, 2010
• Where: Trocones, Mexico with accommodations at the Resort at Majahua Palms
• Why: Jessica is a serious yogi whose retreats get rave reviews. And what other retreat has Samba drumming? As Richard Seigler puts it, Samba has "rhythms that flow through the earth and up into the sky on its way igniting our souls." So yeah, there's that too. 
• How Much: Sign up by 1/15 and the all-inclusive price (except airfare) is $1500. After that it's $1650.
• Link: Yoga and Samba Drumming Retreat

Yoga Retreats

Yoga In Jamaica with Jessica Bellofatto

This November, take four days to chill out in Montego Bay, Jamaica with Jessica Bellofatto. Featured in The New York Times, TimeOut New York, The New York Post and New York Magazine, Jessica co-founded Yoga Shanti in Sag Harbor, NY in 1999, co-directed Yoga Shanti’s first 500 hr Teacher Training Program and leads sold-out retreats worldwide. Perched on a lush green peninsula on Jamaica's countryside, the retreat center features tropical gardens, colonial architecture and a beautiful beach. Be a little bit mellow and a lot luxurious while getting all your yoga sorted out. Sounds amazing.

Retreat Alerts & Hamptons Gossip

Raves from Tulum, Redux

"I just returned from Mexico, yes, with my health intact," emails C., a dear friend not inclined to grade inflation. "Spent the week with two of the BEST yoga instructors ever...." What do we have here? Swine flu be damned, it's another glowing retreat report from Tulum, Mexico. "Tulum is where it's at," says C. fresh from a week of asanas on the beach with Jessica Bellofatto and Jerry Bianchini. Who are these super gurus, and where can you find them? We did some research...

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