A blog, then a hotel,
then this.
Mokum Surf Club began as a surf travel blog. We missed a place that collected not just the surf conditions, but the places to stay, to eat and to explore nearby. So years on the road followed, reviewing hotels and places professionally and writing about the best waves in the world. We got good at spotting which places were worth the flight and which ones photographed better than they lived.
Then we followed a long-held dream and ran one ourselves: a surf hotel at the end of a dirt road in Pavones, Costa Rica. Almost three years of doing every part of it, from the swell check at six to the last plate off the table at ten. And we loved it. Seven days a week of making the place feel like a home away from home for everyone who walked in, surfing with our guests at sunrise, sharing life stories over meals, and getting to work and live alongside the best local community we could have wished for. It was better than the dream, and it became the birthplace of our retreats.
Mokum is Amsterdam's nickname. It means safe haven, and that's the part we kept. Wherever we take you, however far off the map, the point is that it feels like somewhere you belong.
About us
When you get in touch, you're talking to the people who built this. Here's who you'll be dealing with.
Marthe Barends
Co-founderTravel writer, photographer and trip curator. She spent years crossing the world writing about hotels and the places around them, and ran social media for large hotel brands before any of this existed. Then she ran a hotel herself, in Costa Rica. She writes everything you read on this site and decides how a trip should feel before anyone books it.
Jonne Roeland
Co-founderPhotographer and filmmaker, and a producer in Dutch television before that. He travelled the world making content for hotels and brands, which is how he came to know most of the coasts we work on. Ran the same hotel in Costa Rica. He shoots everything you see here and runs the operation on the ground.
Questions before you commit to anything?
You'll be talking to one of us, usually the same day. No form, no account manager, no waiting for the office to open.
Message us on WhatsApp →Three things we don't compromise on
We pick the coast, not the brochure
We go where the wave is worth the flight, even when that means a longer drive from the airport. Every place we put you in started as somewhere we wanted to surf ourselves.
Remote doesn't mean unorganised
Transfers, boards, forecasts, food, the thing that breaks on Wednesday. We line it all up before you fly and stay reachable while you're there, so your group only has to think about the water.
We lean on people who live there
Coaches, cooks, drivers and guides we've worked with for years, not names off a list. They know which spot works at which tide without checking, and they're the reason a week actually runs.
Four kinds of surf trip
Same coastlines either way. The difference is who does the planning.
The people behind every trip
Everywhere we work, a small group of locals makes the trip possible: surf coaches who grew up on the wave, cooks who feed a full house every day, drivers and guides who know every trail and beach worth stopping at. Most of them we've worked with for years, and they're chosen per trip rather than picked off a list.
MSC Creative Agency
Alongside the trips we run a small creative agency for the hospitality and travel world: photography, video, social and web. It's how we started, it's what we still do for other brands, and it's the reason content can be built into a trip from day one instead of bolted on afterwards.
Visit the agency →
Let's build your
next trip.
A retreat, a week built from scratch, or something for a team or a brand. Tell us who's coming and roughly when, and we'll point you to the right way in.
Start the conversation →