About Us
How did the Surf Ranch begin?
The Surf Ranch first started construction in 2009, when Canadian brothers (Lucas & Travis Boychuk) first moved to Nicaragua, bought machetes, and spent weeks chopping down the 10 ft tall grass on the 2 acre property which is now the Surf Ranch.
It has since turned into a 7 villa, 19 condo action sports resort, with a full 2 story restaurant, swimming pool with an island and swim up bar, the largest skateboard park in Nicaragua, jungle paintball course, tower drop to giant inflatable airbag and one of the most talked about resorts in Nicaragua. The brothers are now building Surf Ranch Popoyo which will be one of the largest resorts in Nicargua. Watch our documentary "Hotel Brothers".
The Story
One cold December night back in 2008 in Kelowna, BC, Canada, after work, 19 and 21 year old brothers Lucas & Travis Boychuk decided to pick up a case of beer after work and chill in their parents hot tub. The discussion started with buying islands and ended with buying land in a foreign country. They brought out the laptop and looked up islands for sale around the world. As the search went on, islands seemed to be out of the question, so they decided to type in "cheap land for sale" on Google. Phillipines and Nicaragua came up. They decided to book 2 return tickets to Nicaragua that week...as it was closer than the Phillipines.
So off to Nicaragua they went. They found themselves doing the same thing that every backpacker does when they travel...explore. They spent the 2 week trip, exploring, partying and having fun. The 2 weeks went faster than they thought. It was the day before they had to go home that they realized that they didn't really look at much land. After walking down the street of San Juan Del Sur, they met a local contractor from California. That night the brothers went to go check out a 2 acre plot of land he had for sale.
Lucas and Travis loved the piece of land for sale, and they put a $1000 deposit on it. The owner of the land made an agreement where they would pay the rest off over the course of a year. The brothers came back to Nicaragua 4 months later, rented a truck and toured the country, hired a lawyer, and did some work on the land. Over the next year, they worked like crazy at their jobs. Also during that year, they built a website and came up with a business plan on what they wanted to do with the land...to build the world's 1st action sports resort.
"To be honest with you, we had our doubts", says Lucas, that was until he posted an ad on their local towns website...looking for investors for the project. Over the course of 1 month, they met up with 6 potential investors at a local starbucks, and they all wanted in. They only chose 2 investors from the bunch, and off they went. The two brothers sold their vehicles, everything they owned, had to end their 5 year relationships with their girlfriends, and off they went into the unknown. The story is still creating itself.