Discover the fun in fitness: four great vacation retreats where you can learn surfing, tennis, mountain biking and snowboarding - or get better at - Venture Out Special

Shape, August, 2002

Remember bug juice, lumpy mattresses and letters home that began, "Dear Mom, come get me right now"? Well, these camps for grown-ups are nothing like that! Instead of mean camp counselors, you'll enjoy expert instruction, comfy to downright luxurious digs and drop-dead-gorgeous scenery. Best of all, you may come home with a new fun sport that can help you burn calories, increase your fitness level, make new friends and have a blast and a half.

Here are some great sports camps, listed by season (summer to winter 2003). We also show you how many calories you'll burn per hour (based on a 145-pound woman) and what muscles each sport targets:

In search of big waves

Surf Diva, La Jolla Shores, Calif.

Burn Factor 150-331 calories

Works upper body and abs for paddling, legs, hips, butt and core for standing/riding

The seductive thing about surfing is that it looks so fun and effortless. So one free weekend, I headed for Surf Diva camp, lured by the guarantee that their instructors can get anyone up on a board. The clinic involved two-hour lessons ($115, including the use of a beginner's 9-foot board) midday on Saturday and Sunday at the Southern California resort town of La Jolla Shores just north of San Diego. Surf Diva lists nearby hotels and motels on its Web site; I stayed at the modest but adequate 30-room La Jolla Village Lodge for just over $100 a night. Although it was July, the Pacific was still a relatively chilly 74 degrees, which meant that full-body wet suits were a must (also provided).

The first hour on the beach was a thorough, yet simple, introduction to wave dynamics, surf etiquette and board anatomy. The five (female, of course) instructors were relaxed, friendly, reassuring and funny -- everything you want in someone who is going take you out where you might drown. Then we 20-odd surfer wannabes chose our boards (determined by height and skill level) and laid them down on the sand to practice the fundamental surfing move -- standing up. It looked to me like translating this "pop up" to a slippery moving object wasn't going to be easy.

Nonetheless, my four-woman pod trekked down to the water's edge with our instructor, leashed our boards to one ankle and entered the water. Smack. A wave hit my board and flipped it up. I wrestled it down, only to be hit again. I did eventually, as promised, stand all the way up on the board and ride. For a brief few seconds, it was very satisfying.

However, the following day in even gnarlier surf, I performed worse, not even getting off my knees. When the surf caught me with my board parallel to the wave (a big no-no) and rammed it hard into my thumb, I'd had enough pain and frustration. I dragged my board to the shore, and sat out the remaining few minutes.

The strange thing, though, was that as time passed, I began to want to try surfing again. When I next had the opportunity, I signed up for a private lesson. And, in better conditions with longer, slower, rolling surf, I got up. Then I got up again. I realized that without the foundation I had built at Surf Diva camp, it wouldn't have been possible. I was surfing, was having fun, I was even laughing. I wasn't a diva yet, but I could see the possibilities.

Anne M. Russell

Details May-October weekend workshops are $115; off-season is $98. Private lessons, weeklong clinics, special events and lots of cool Surf Diva T-shirts, rash guards and boards are also available. To register, call (858) 454-8273 or go to surfdiva.com.

A swingin' experience

Green Valley Spa and Tennis Camp, St. George, Utah

Burn Factor 350-559 calories

Works Mostly upper, middle and lower back and abs, including shoulders, chest, biceps and triceps

Best known for its luxury services and extraordinary location in Utah's red-rock country, Green Valley Spa is also home to Vic Braden's year-round Tennis College. Here's a typical day: 7:30 a.m.-noon I head to breakfast in the main dining room. Green Valley plans its lowfat meals so that they tally 1,500 calories at the end of the day, but most guests opt for more and the kitchen happily obliges. After eating poached eggs, oatmeal and fruit, I head to the courts. Depending on the day, I get videotaped doing forehands, backhands, serves, volleys and returns. The coach and I take a look at the tape, and he analyzes what's wrong (and what's right, sometimes) with my stroke. We head back to the court to work on that stroke. Then he sends me to the ball machine, which is like a batting cage, only with tennis balls. These clever machines can be set for backhand, forehand, approach and volleys -- for lefties or righties -- and they exist only at two places in the country. Noon-1 p.m. Gourmet lunch, with foods you'd never find at a real camp's mess hall: sushi with miso soup, teriyaki chicken, or satay with noodle salad. 1-3 p.m. More tennis: match play. I should have checked the Beginner box. The three other "intermediates" I played against all belong to tennis clubs at home. During our doubles games, I got killed at the net and my serves were returned harder than they arrived. But over a few days, I became a much better, more strategic player. I had to. 3:30-6 p.m. You can work out in the big, new gym. Take yoga, Spinning, dance, step or tai chi. Go on a guided hike. Swim in one of six pools. Get a hot stone massage (or any one of the 40 other spa treatments). I take a nap. 6 p.m. till bedtime Typical dinner menu: mahi-mahi in coconut sauce atop a cauliflower-potato puree with Napa cabbage and spinach; cheesecake for dessert. After dinner, a nightly outdoor Jacuzzi soothes my tennis-addled body.