Moku Hawaii — Local services in Honolulu

AVOID this place if you are new to surfing, it would RUIN your experience! The shop assistant is rude and the instructor Jared is the most irresponsible person I've ever seen. A friend of mine and myself bought a Groupon lesson, and when we arrived, the shop assistant showed no willingness to help with our gear at all. The rental cloth smells and any equipment that we asked for (even LIFEJACKET after you mention you don't swim well) will be answered with "you don't need that, no one wears it". Because my friend had one time of surfing experience elsewhere, she assumed that the instructor would not take us beginners to any place too deep, she believed them, which was a terrible mistake that almost took her life! The instructor only showed us the basics in the shop, and then took us to the ocean. Once the wave came, he pushed us to it without further instructions. After the wave, I happen to end in the same area with my friend where the water is more than 6ft deep, and my friend started to sink after losing balance and fell from the board. She started to yell for HLEP. There was no one else nearby other than myself, and I am also new to surfing so I was struggling paddling close to her. After I finally managed to get her to hold my board, our instructor is still no where to be seen. After he showed up finally, he showed no compassion. In his own words, "you have the board right beside you and there is no chance you're gonna sink"! We wanted to end the lesson right away, but he insisted that we should give it another chance, and he swore he will be close to my friend all the time. The reality is, I was left alone almost throughout the course by myself, and he didn't keep his word to be close to my friend either, where she fell into the water again (and thank God the water is shallower). After a while, I started to get motion sickness and started to paddle back to the shore, and he even teased us that we don't work out enough. I will NEVER go back...

We rented 2 boards from Moku and in the beginning everyone was great and helpful, prices were cheap and the process was easy. We rented half day, and it was a fun morning! We decided to return them over an hour early as my 2 kiddos (5 & 2) were tired and my husband wanted to go to bodysurf at Sandy’s, so after we washed the boards off we went back to Moku to return them. It was chaotic, which is fine, but the way my husband was treated wasn’t. We hadn’t wrapped the strap around the boards after washing them (we’re still really new to surfing, so def learned and were also juggling our 2 kids, so the strap def wasnt huge on our mind and we just looped and held it) but the older gentleman taking the boards started getting on to my husband about it... my husband immediately apologized but the man continued about “returning things how they were” at least 2 more times throughout this process. After handing his board off, my husband turned to me to take mine as I was behind him, and the same guy barked at him that he needed to fill out the end paperwork... so my husband let him know he was just grabbing my board... at the same time another instructor who was heading out with some students and we were trying to move out of the way with everyone coming and going so my husband tried to move one way, saying excuse me, and the instructor said in the rudest way, “That’s not where I’m going sir,” and just waited without even like a hey I’m headed right through here or anything... And THEN my husband finally gets inside to fill out the paperwork and it’s chaos, so he comes out and is talking to me, while I’m still by the entrance, and we decide he’s going to take the kids to the van... the same older gentleman completely ignores me, and barks at my husband again to come fill out the paperwork... Like I get working with tourists all day prb sucks and is stressful, but that def ended a fun morning at Waikiki on such a negative note, which...

Had a semi-private lesson for my wife and I at 4pm 6th April 2019... absolutely would NOT recommend this place.

Our experience from the top:

Walked into the store to hear staff complaining about stupid f#@king customers.

Meet our instructor who had red, strained eyes, seemed out of it and smelled like marijuana. Dont remember his name but he was young, athletic and African American.

Instructor told us to not bring our phone as we may lose it (important, see last point).

We had a 60 second run down on how to stand up on the board inside the shop and then went straight to the surf.

We arrived at Waikiki beach just to the left of dukes statue and went straight in the surf, no explanation about paddling on a board.

Instructor was short with my wife and I yelling at us how we were doing it wrong instead of trying to correct technique or explaining it. Includes body placement, hand placement and feet placement.

Instructor told my wife to go to knee position on the board and pushed her into a wave with no warning. Naturally she came straight off.

The board hit my wife in the head after the came off it, instead of sympathizing, the instructor told her it was impossible. At this point she had enough and went to sit on the beach.

I continued the lesson and the instructor was still very short with me and didn't like it when i pointed out why would she lie about hitting her head.

We went back to the shop only to find the go pros weren't recording so we have no photos or videos of our "experience"

The instructor offered us another lesson the next day to make up for the go pros but our flight home was the next day (today and i have written this on the way home).

If you want to hire a cheap board, this is the place. But if you want a lesson or customer service, go elsewhere and steer...