Room and (Surf) Board

The most famous photo of Terry Simms shows the legendary longboarder leaning so far into a wave that he’s practically horizontal. The thin sliver of his surfboard’s edge cuts through the water like a warm knife through butter. His fingers casually graze the barrel of the wave. His face is the picture of composure. This is the guy you want to surf with—and now, thanks to a partnership with Panama’s Sweet Bocas (sweet bocaspanama.com), you can. Simms, who in his retirement coaches serious newbies and pros alike, is taking aspiring wave chasers who rent the seven-bedroom overwater villa on an intense week of bathymetry, map reading, theory, technique, and, of course, all-out surfing among the Caribbean coast’s best breaks. By week’s end, you’ll look pretty damn cool on a board—if not quite as cool as the master himself.