Frequently asked questions

The retreat runs Wednesday evening through Saturday morning. Included in the seat price: three nights of accommodation at Templo Saladita, all meals prepared on-property from Wednesday dinner through Saturday breakfast, daily facilitated peer sessions in the hexagonal shala, morning surf access with local Saladita guides, breathwork and movement sessions each morning, and full use of all property amenities — pool, two plunge ice baths, barrel sauna, edible gardens, shala. International flights and travel insurance are not included.

Days run roughly 6am to 10pm with significant unstructured time. Breathwork opens around 6am; surf session runs approximately 7am to 10am; facilitated mid-morning session runs 10:30am to roughly 12:30pm. Afternoons (1pm to 6pm) are unstructured. Evening sessions begin after dinner, typically 8pm to 10pm. Breathwork and early surf are offered, not enforced — there are no mandatory wake-up times.

Each participant brings a specific, live problem. The facilitated sessions are structured around those problems: one participant presents for fifteen to twenty minutes, then the group responds with questions and observations for forty to sixty minutes. Addie facilitates to keep the exchange specific rather than abstract. Each participant gets at least one full session on their problem across the four days. The format is peer-driven — the intelligence in the room comes from the other participants, not from Addie or Jordan as advisors.

Yes, there is Wi-Fi at the property. We do not enforce a device-free policy; participants calibrate their own availability. In practice, most significantly reduce email volume by choice. The one firm expectation: phones out of the evening peer sessions. Mornings (breathwork, surf) work best without devices. Afternoons are yours.

All facilitated sessions are in English. Property staff and local surf guides speak primarily Spanish; basic Spanish is useful but not required. The ZIH airport and La Saladita village are accustomed to international visitors, and English is widely understood in most contexts.

$15,000 per seat, all-inclusive at the property. Three nights of accommodation, all meals Wednesday dinner through Saturday breakfast, facilitated sessions, surf access, breathwork, full amenity use. Does not cover flights to ZIH, travel insurance, visa fees, or personal off-property spending. The inaugural late-2026 cohort is offered at $11,250 — 25% below standard — in exchange for a written testimonial and permission to be quoted in case study materials.

Yes. We issue invoices to companies and LLCs. Many participants expense the retreat as professional development. On deductibility: consult your accountant. We can structure the invoice as a facilitated executive peer program. US-based participants may find some or all deductible under professional development provisions; that depends on your specific situation.

A $3,000 deposit is due upon acceptance to hold your seat. The remaining balance is due 60 days before the cohort start date. Payment by wire, ACH, or major credit card. Net-30 terms on the balance are available for company invoices — contact us to confirm. The deposit is refundable under the standard cancellation policy.

Cancellations 60+ days before start: full refund. Cancellations 30–59 days before: 50% refund. Under 30 days: non-refundable. Seats are transferable to another qualified applicant at no charge, initiated at least 14 days before cohort start. If the timing doesn't work but the fit is right, we will hold your application for a future cohort before opening the seat publicly.

Beyond the retreat fee, budget for: round-trip flights to ZIH ($400 to $1,200 depending on routing and origin); ground transfer from ZIH ($30 each way; we arrange this); travel insurance ($50–$150); personal off-property spending (cash pesos for restaurants, tips, gear). All meals at the property from Wednesday dinner through Saturday breakfast are included.

Fly into Zihuatanejo International Airport (ZIH), Guerrero, Mexico. Do not fly into Acapulco (ACA) — it is further and adds significant ground travel. ZIH is approximately 45 minutes south of La Saladita by car. Once accepted, we share specific arrival logistics and recommended windows to align with group transfers.

Direct seasonal service to ZIH operates from: Los Angeles (LAX), San Francisco (SFO), Houston (IAH/HOU), Dallas (DFW), Denver (DEN), Chicago (ORD), Vancouver (YVR), and Mexico City (MEX). Schedules vary by season; direct flights are most frequent November through April. From Europe, Asia, and Australia, the typical routing is one-stop through LAX, Houston, or Mexico City. January and April cohorts fall in peak direct-flight season.

Templo arranges ground transfer from ZIH for all retreat participants. The drive is approximately 45 minutes north along the coast highway. We coordinate shared transfers for participants arriving within compatible windows. A private transfer is available for unusual arrival times — local drivers are experienced with the route. We share vetted transfer contacts with accepted participants; use them rather than the main airport taxi queue.

Citizens of the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and most EU countries do not require a visa for tourism in Mexico. You receive a tourist permit (FMM) on arrival, valid for up to 180 days. Keep the FMM card — surrender it on departure. Citizens of other countries should verify current requirements with the Mexican consulate well in advance. Requirements can change; confirm with official sources closer to travel.

For work sessions: laptop, materials for the problem you are bringing, notebook. For surf: long-sleeve rash guard (preferred over sunscreen in water), board shorts or one-piece, reef-safe sunscreen. No wetsuit needed — water is warm year-round. Surfboards and soft-tops are provided; no need to bring equipment. For the property: casual clothes, sandals, one slightly nicer outfit for Wednesday arrival dinner. La Saladita has no dress codes. Pack light — the property has laundry service.

No. La Saladita is one of the most beginner-accessible waves in Mexico — long, slow, mellow, with local guides who have been teaching on it for years. Complete beginners regularly stand up on their first session. Surf is offered, not required. What we ask is a genuine willingness to try at least once; the shared physical experience changes the register of the evening conversations in ways that a full opt-out does not replicate.

Local Saladita guides only. This is a community standard we follow strictly. Jordan has a decade of professional surf coaching experience (Las Olas, Surf Simply, Surf Sister Tofino) and does not coach in the Saladita lineup. Only local guides do. Their knowledge of this specific wave — its tides, channels, sets, and rhythms — is specific to this break, accumulated over years, and theirs.

Highly varied. Most cohorts include complete beginners, occasional surfers, and intermediate regulars. Local guides are experienced with mixed-ability groups and split into appropriate sub-groups when needed. La Saladita's long, slow wave is genuinely workable for all levels in the same session.

Water runs warm year-round — roughly 27°C in the cooler months, 29–30°C in warmer months. No wetsuit needed at any cohort date. January and April typically bring smaller, cleaner, glassier conditions — excellent for beginners. July and October fall in swell season, when south swells can produce larger, more exciting waves. Both windows are valid at different skill levels.

Equipment is provided. The local guides supply boards appropriate to your ability level — soft-top learner boards for beginners, longboards for intermediate and experienced surfers. You do not need to bring your own. Rash guards and reef-safe sunscreen are the only surf-specific items you need to pack.

Eight seats per cohort. Firm limit — it is the property's capacity and the size at which the peer session format works best. Small enough that everyone knows each other by end of day one; large enough for meaningful cross-section. We do not expand cohorts.

Addie and Jordan review applications together and accept people into a cohort, not in isolation. We weight toward diversity of industry, company stage, and geography. We look for live stakes and a disposition toward candor. Each seat affects the composition of the whole room; admission is reviewed carefully and not automated.

Yes. We share cohort composition with accepted participants before the final payment is due — brief profiles of other confirmed participants when the cohort reaches five confirmed seats. We do not share application details without permission. If there is a conflict-of-interest concern, raise it with us and we will work through it.

Yes. We expect participants from the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and English-speaking founders based in Berlin, Bangalore, Singapore, Dubai, and elsewhere. Cross-national composition is deliberate — operators in different regulatory, talent, and capital markets bring distinct perspectives that improve the peer exchange.

Yes, with one condition: we will not place you in consecutive cohorts. The format is most valuable when the room is new to each other. If you attended Cohort 2 (January 2027), Cohort 4 (July 2027) or later would be the earliest option. Repeat-participant applications are reviewed case by case; we weight first-time participants in each cohort.

Each cohort is connected in a small private group — typically WhatsApp or Signal — that stays in contact afterward. No mandatory follow-up programs, no alumni fees, no structured upsell. What the group builds in the room belongs to the group. Optional cohort calls in the months following are possible if participants want them; whether the group stays active depends on the group, not on our infrastructure.

No. A tight genuine connection among eight people is more valuable than a loose connection among two hundred alumni. If the program grows and there is demand for a broader structure, we will revisit. For now: the cohort is the community.

Not structurally. The retreat is not a pipeline to coaching, advisory, or investment relationships with the founders. Addie does not offer post-retreat coaching packages. If natural professional relationships develop, they develop — but there is no product attached to that outcome.

Inaugural-cohort participants who receive the $11,250 founding-member rate agree to write a testimonial post-retreat (200 words or more, honest, about their experience) and give permission to be quoted in Templo case study materials. The testimonial is not edited for tone — we will publish what you write. If you find the retreat was not what you expected, we still ask for the honest account. The discount is in exchange for candid documentation, not a glowing endorsement.

Yes. Many participants extend their stay in the area or return independently. The property operates as a boutique hotel outside of retreat windows — individual casitas and the glass treehouse are available for individual booking on Airbnb. La Saladita itself is a small village with a handful of good restaurants and consistent surf year-round. It is the kind of place people return to.