Tropical Rush — Local services in Oʻahu

TLDR: Wide-ranging selection of merchandise and boards, but poor management and customer service. If you're looking for a hassle-free board rental experience, be sure to avoid this location!

Tropical Rush encompasses a couple buildings, including an office, board storage, cashier and a shop for other beach essentials. Interior design is great, merchandise available is wide-ranging, and staff are friendly. However, there appears to be signs of mismanagement and a serious lack of communication.

During a recent visit to rent stand-up boards, two different employees started separate paperwork processes with members of my party, which we found out to be duplicative and unnecessary only after having written down our credit card information. We then asked about renting a car rack (for board storage) and were assured by one employee that not only did they have one available, we'd be able to fit at least four stand-up paddle boards on our SUV. Assured, we continued with payment and the security deposit - and that's when serious complications began. Having paid and walked over to the board storage portion of Tropical Rush, the employees there had no idea who we were or what we had paid for. Secondly, they did not in fact have a car rack for rental - just rope/straps. And even then, no padding or other materials to minimize potential scratches/damage to our car. There also was simply no way we could fit more than 2 boards on one car, let alone more than four. Confused, we asked the employees in charge of the paddle boards why their coworkers had informed us differently, questions to which they simply shrugged and took no responsibility for. Now frustrated, we decided to cancel our rentals and get a refund. Ironically, as I'm processing the refund an older gentleman storms in, visibly upset and claiming the store did, after all, have car racks available for us. He proceeds to reprimand the employees and storms away. The icing on top of this dumpster fire: they forgot to return our cash deposit as part of the refund and we needed to remind them. Truly a 0-star...

Went for an afternoon surfing 5mi n away. Although the selection was quite limited they were trying to be helpful. I rented a 6'0 fish that was "near new". The issue was when returning the board. The fiber was torn on a few inches forming a right angle near the stringer. I should have checked earlier but there is no way such a ding would appear after two hours of surfing when there was 3-4ft waves in puaena. I was charged the full repair and felt quite frankly faced some dishonesty from the shop. In my 10+ years of surfing, I've seen dings and don't think this damage could possibly be incurred on a board that was rented intact. There are plenty of places around. For tourists, prefer another place...

Went paddle boarding for an unbeatable price of $15/hr. The staff is superb & friendly. Give you a quick two minute course on what & what not to do, how to paddle board and answer any questions afterwards. Small belongings such as mobile phones can be given to staff for lockup. Even for the first timer the concept was very easy to adapt and did not have to take a fall into the water. Afterwards you may receive your free shaved ice with receipt showing you purchased and item in the store, to include including the hour of...