How we Started
Our Story
Kay Kay made her first poncho in February of 2020, a DIY project, inspired by the otherwise dull choices in the local surf shop. When Covid hit, those with sewing skills jumped on the mask-making bandwagon to generate some cash. At that time, Kay Kay’s work was close contact stuff, namely, yoga instruction and a bit of kiting teaching, most of which was cancelled.
It was during the heat of summer in La Ventana, on full lockdown and no interest in mask-making that Kay Kay’s DIY project morphed into a prototype and business concept. A few requests from friends for ponchos and pieces of brightly colored Mexican fabric on hand spirited Kay Kay back to her sewing machine where she combined local fabric with Terry cloth -- and the first SURreal Baja poncho was born.
A couple of months into sewing, Kay Kay knew she needed help. She’d long wanted to give back to the community that had already given her so much. With very little business experience, a lot of confidence and her ability to communicate in Spanish at an accelerated pace, Kay Kay sought out local women that either knew how to sew or wanted to learn, and promptly assembled a team.
Today SURreal Baja is Laura, Claudia and Kay Kay. “Without them, it would not be,” Kay Kay says.
Kay Kay’s vision is to teach more local women to sew in hopes they can become self-supporting and develop their own creative career path!
About
Kay Kay
Born in the Czech Republic, Kay Kay studied fashion design and fabrication at a trade college. Though she liked school, she had little desire to work in the fashion industry. Ironically, shortly after college, she found herself in fashion-centric (and costly) London. Survival skills and a high aptitude for language kicked in, and she quickly landed a job in the Food & Beverage Industry to where cash is immediate.
Kay Kay was living the London dream. As her English improved so did the job title and money, going from busser to waitress to bartender in a Big Ben minute. An hour later, so to speak, she secured a place in British history at the prestigious May Fair Hotel in West London as their first female bartender. From there she was serving up top dollar champagne at the reopening of the iconic Savoy Hotel and eventually capped her London affair as a lounge waitress in the city’s award-winning Japanese Restaurant, Roka.
It was 2012 and a slower pace was calling. Kay Kay packed her bags, headed to Canada's mountain playground of Whistler, BC and settled in for the next three years at the Four Seasons.
It was in the summer of 2013 in the chilly waters of Squamish BC when Kay Kay discovered kiteboarding and her water affinity. Wanting more, more often, her instructor had suggested she visit La Ventana. So, in spring of 2014 she booked herself a flight south and upon arrival immediately fell in love with the place. Less than a year later she moved to La Ventana, taught kiteboarding for the following three years, and established herself as a yoga instructor.
It was clear from her schooling that she’d always had an interest in fashion and color. But little did she realize on that fateful day when she’d dismissed both the weak color palette and functionality of changing poncho on the surf shop rack that her otherwise camouflaged capacity would reveal itself in the form of SURreal Baja.
Today, Kay Kay is a proud resident of La Ventana, a renowned yoga instructor with loyal clientele, and the founder and creator of the uniquely distinguishable SURreal Baja ponchos. New features including the secret zipper pocket, hands holes, and poncho to pillow function have recently since been added to the colorful collage that is only identifiable as SURreal Baja – created by Kay Kay.
And when she’s not working, she can be found on the water – winging – usually decked in purple.