Big Kahuna Adventures — Local services in Maui

Rented three paddle boards at about 10 am for two hours. We were given the briefing as it was our first time and were told to stay between shore and wind line out in the distance. We were told best direction to be was heading north once we hit the water. By the time we got to the ocean there was no wind line as it reached shore. Others were out and it didnt seem to be too bad so we headed out to area suggested. Wind was getting stronger fairly quickly so we decided to head in after about 15 minutes with intent to ask for a raincheck, or a windcheck in this case. Having a very difficult time trying to get back, we hit shore in a different area and carried the boards a bigger distance. Some locals commented on how this was unexpected and thought they were going to have to contact the coastguard to get us, almost not even a joke. While we realize that weather can change, the low rating is for how the person who I am pretty sure is the owner handled it. It was an I told you so attitude and he was very demeaning in much of what he had to say. He downplayed how bad it was at the water without even being there, everyone had come in, and he is saying "oh, its not very bad". At first he very reluctantly gave us a free hour when we purchased another. Just spent $90 for 15 minutes and another half hour trying to get back, no fun was had. Then he agreed to one hour free, even though it was going to be a lot of work for him, not that there would be a shortage of boards. What work, he took the boards down and puts them back up?? He suggested we come in the morning when the waters are calmer, and I suggested he tell newbies that before renting to them. In offering the free hour he was demeaning in many ways including telling me that I learned a lesson from this. There are too many other choices, would not rent...

My husband and I signed up for surf lessons about 3 months ago when we knew we would be in Maui for our honeymoon. We were excited, but unfortunately while in Maui I got the stomach flu. It was really bad so my husband planned to surf while I stayed on land. The owner would not give us a refund which is understandable, but the website says “in the event of an emergency you will be refunded”. I guess it just depends on what you would call an emergency. Then the next day we went to rent a board from the same company because on the website it says “discounted rentals therefore after” meaning after you pay for a lesson. When my husband asked what the discount was the owner said it was just an extra 30- minutes. Not much of a discount when all other shops give you the whole day for $20. My husband showed the owner what the website said and the owner gave him a huge attitude and started throwing the board on the ground and saying “whatever”. We got the discount, but he was so rude about it. You would think that after we payed for 2 lessons, and only got one, then came back for rentals that you would treat your customers a little better. He also only let my husband rent the board for 2 hours. Go elsewhere for rentals. With that being said the instructors, are fabulous and this guy is lucky he has good instruction or else this would be a complete 1...

The owner of the company is extremely rude and unprofessional (the instructors however, are fantastic!). A group of us signed up our kids for lessons and of course wanted to watch them have fun (2 of the kids are 11 years old). The owner would not let us anywhere near the kids and accused the parents of trying to get free lessons by easesdropping on the instructor (none of us are interested in surfing and we explained that to the owner- we would have signed up for lessons if we had wanted to surf)- he kept going on and on and about how if we wanted to listen we needed to sign up to take a lesson. The lessons are in a public park, by the way, which means that anyone can be anywhere- it is not his property. He claims he’s never had parents want to watch their kids (?)- which seems pretty weird to me as I would think that anyone with young kids would want to watch them have fun. There are multiple companies that do the initial surf lesson in the park before heading to the water and we noticed that all of the other parents at the other places were watching their kids. Just very strange that the owner made such a big deal and harassed us multiple times.

The instructors, however, are nice as can be and if this company had a different owner, I would give it 5 stars!! The owner gets 1 star and the...