San Diego Surf School | San Diego Surf Lessons — Attraction in San Diego

I rarely leave reviews and certainly not negative ones but I feel that it's important to share my experience to warn other customers.

About a month ago, I booked a 3-hr surfing lesson with San Diego Surf School. I was super excited to go as I haven't surfed in years and wanted to improve. However, the ocean conditions were so bad--apparently there was a big swell that day--that my instructor even said that and I quote, "we're just trying to survive out here." I spent half the time on the beach and the other half fighting the waves, miserable and exhausted.

An hour before the lesson ended, my instructor told me that he couldn't teach me anything under these conditions and to go back to the school and recommended asking for a refund. Spoiler alert: they did not give me a refund, not even a partial one. While they did offer me a voucher, such a thing is useless to me as I was only visiting San Diego that week. Even after explaining my situation to one of the owners, they did not listen or care.

This experience left me wondering why they even decided to hold lessons under dangerous conditions. I later learned that the school cancelled the remaining classes that day for safety reasons. If they were aware of these conditions, WHY did they not cancel my lesson or at the very least, try to make things right? There was no sense of customer service or a desire to make right a situation they caused. I was very upset by such a poor surfing experience but more importantly, the lack of empathy shown towards me. Based on the mostly positive reviews by other people, it seems that this school is held in high regard and I'm very sad that I did not have the...

We had a great experience for a semi-private (which ended up being private) lesson on 11/12/2023. Myself (24-male) and girlfriend (23-female) had been surfing a few times before, but this was perfect for what we needed. We checked in at the shop, got out wetsuits, and headed down to the beach. From there, San Diego Surf School had a tent set up right at the entrance of the beach and we met our instructor. We got into our wetsuits, our boards were there, and did a 10 minute “lesson” about general surfing (how to pop up, how to hold the board, how to safety operate the board in the water, etc…). From there we spent next 75 minutes going in and out of small waves with the help of our instructor “pushing” us into the waves and helping “pick out” the waves. This was fairly beginner surfing, so if you’re more intermediate or advanced, maybe you would want to inform San Diego Surf School in advance. After our time, we simple left our wetsuits at the tent location and we were done. Our instructor was a young male, very knowledge about surfing and the general San Diego surfing scene. He was nice, polite, professional, and had that “California” vibe (a plus!). This was hassle free and overall a great experience. The cost is certainly my justified, and quite frankly on par with what I’d expect for a surf lesson. Renting wet suits and boards on our own, and trying to surf ourselves would not have been worth the money saved, I’m happy we spent some more money to get the ease of experience. I would do this again, no...

Thoughts Prior to My Session: Overall it was a great experience, my instructor was super friendly and the whole team was great to work with in terms of communication, getting my session set up, and getting me out on the water!

Thoughts on the session itself: Instruction - Nick provided a lot of helpful tips for when I go surfing on my own after lessons. In addition, during the lesson itself Nick was very encouraging and continued to tailor his instruction throughout the lesson based on my progress in the water. I had a great time and got up very quickly, which was definitely due to the instruction I received. Nick was also very good about sharing safety tips for how to properly hold the board (nose always facing out to sea vs. shore when holding the board and not sitting on it) as well as showing different ways to navigate the waves (when sitting on the board facing towards the coming wave, when sitting on the board when going with the wave, pushing the board through the wave while standing, etc.)

Equipment - In addition, the equipment was well maintained, the surf board was comfy and easy to use and the wetsuit kept me comfortable and warm during the session.

Thoughts on post-session feedback: I ordered the picture package along with with my lesson and received my pictures within a few days, the pictures were great and it was very easy to navigate to...