Ty Gurney Surf School — Attraction in Honolulu

tl;dr - Great place for first-time surfing lessons. Highly recommend getting a private lesson, or if you’re opting for a semi-private, stick to 1 hour or else you’ll be exhausted from paddling. Also, the raw video footage is totally worth it.

My boyfriend and I took two surfing lessons here. The first lesson was a 1 hour private lesson; we each had a dedicated instructor. This was so nice and it made the hour so enjoyable. I was able to stand up and ride on the very first wave! The instructor helps impulse you so you can catch the wave, and then paddles you back out to try again, so you do very minimal paddling.

We were feeling confident and ambitious after the first lesson, so the second lesson was a 2 hour semi-private lesson. For this one, we shared an instructor between the two of us. This meant that the instructor took turns helping us catch waves, but that we had to paddle back to meet him ourselves. It was a windy day, so paddling became exhausting very quickly. We were so depleted that we had to cut the lesson short after one hour. This made me appreciate the individualized attention we received during the first lesson. The instructors are pros, so paddling is a piece of cake to them, but having never surfed before my lessons here, I have a newfound admiration for the strength and stamina that it entails.

We got the raw video footage for our second lesson and I’m so glad we did! The videos are an amazing souvenir of our...

Before booking my surf lesson I did a bit of research and I kept coming back to TY's school, the reviews were great and everyone said that the one on one instructors are amazing. I took my lesson on August 9th, upon arrival everyone was so friendly and answered all my questions, they advised me that the waves were getting a bit weaker but that even thought I had booked a 2 hour session they would refund me an hour since the waves weren't that great. I appreciated that because I bet if I had gone anywhere else they would have just made me be out there with no waves. I was walked over to my instructor Pat and videographer James, they got started right away with teaching me basics and had me out on the water in no time. Here is where this school shines above the rest I am sure, they are having as much fun as you are out there! Ty has assembled a great bunch of people who know what they are doing, and keep things fun.I was able to catch an awesome wave and even got lucky to see a sea turtle that James spotted and documented for my video. Would highly recommend Ty Gurney Surf School and if I was in Hawaii longer I would have gone again! It made my surf lesson even more special that I was Pat's last lesson before he headed to the mainland the next day for Law School. Good luck in Law...

We were not pleased with our experience with Ty Gurney surf school. Pros: easy to find boards ready on the beach for the lesson easy to reserve online Brett gave feedback to all students during the lesson and was a good instructor Cons: Dakota took off in the middle of the lesson to catch a wave leaving our kids where they were, no indication of what he was doing and didn't give them the chance even though it was their lesson. Dakota gave very little feedback during the lesson. the lesson was only 60 minutes long which was not long enough to truly get a good grasp and practice in the water, all the instructors were making fun of a surfer and made fun of one of the instructors, taking his hat and playing keep away. All of this during the lesson. The manner was not joking and our kids picked up on it. the board selected for the younger child was a regular size board. It was not smaller and she couldn't get her arms around the board during the lesson. No adjustment was made for her to give her proper sized equipment. once the lesson was completed, our kids didn't feel like they learned much at all. We ended up booking with a different surf school a few days later. It was a night and day difference. The other school was actually teaching and provided the...