Restaurant “El Costeño “Sayulita — Restaurant in Nayarit

First, my daughter took surf lessons several times/week for 6 months. My son took surf lessons twice before. We know what to expect. My daughter had all her belongings robbed from the school van while at a surf lesson and I gave excellent reviews (it wasn’t their fault). Adrian “gato” came highly recommended by my daughter’s surf instructor in another part of Mexico. We booked a lesson in 2021. It went great, he took them to La Lancha. He even let my daughter return later in the week and borrow a surfboard to do some solo surfing.

So of course when we were returning to the area, I booked another lesson. This time just for my son. I booked it 6 weeks ahead. He asked if I wanted 9 am or 11, I chose 9. I texted him the day before as he had asked to confirm. He had sent me a pin where we were to meet. We arrived about 10 minutes early. Went to the Costeño tent. Explained to the young man there we were there for a lesson at 9 with Adrian. The young man said “he’s elsewhere giving a lesson”. So, I was a bit confused, but I said “okay, we’ll go wait”. I again explained that we had a lesson at 9 with Gato. He said maybe I went to the wrong place. I showed him the “pin” on my phone. He kinda shrugged his shoulders, and was like “yeah, he’s giving a lesson somewhere else”. So we went and sat on the beach and after a few minutes I messaged Gato “we’re here”. He messaged back “Brian is giving you your lesson, I’m at La Lancha, maybe we can meet up later this afternoon”. What the heck?

We walk back up to the tent. I ask the young man we spoke to earlier “are you Brian?” Yes, he was. Are you supposed to be taking Will for a lesson? He acts a bit confused, but says “sure”. Then I tell him what Will’s surfing experience is. He asks Will “where do you want to surf?” I said “aren’t you the teacher?” He starts kinda to walk toward the water. I had to ask him if they have rash guards “oh, sure, here’s one” (hands him an inside out shirt). We are now 15+ minutes after the 9:00 class time. He takes Will out to the beginner waves, acts the whole time like he’d rather be somewhere else, and comes in at 10:00. Never offers to take him to the intermediate level waves (he was definitely ready). And charges me $65 for a 45 minute lesson with an “instructor” that was...

This is the place to go if you want to learn how to surf properly. I’ve always wanted to learn (I’m in my 30’s) and missed the boat when I was younger. I decided this was the trip to learn so I went hunting through the different vendors (there’s quite a few) offering surf lessons on the beach and side streets. Found Adrian and instantly liked him - he wasn’t the hard “tourist” salesman that many of the others were that put me off.

Turns out, he’s actually a pro surfer and has surfed for Mexico before in competitions. You can tell straightaway from talking to him that he’s a surfer first and a businessman second. I think his marketing could be better (sorry Adrian) because once I saw his Instagram I was sold. I would much rather pay more money to learn from a lifelong expert than get cheaper lessons from guys that have learned just enough to start a surfing business. There are quite a few of those out there. This guy knows the sport in and out and knows how to teach it - you can tell the passion he has for it right off the bat when you speak with him.

I went home to do my research and found he had a low rating on Google (something like 3.9), but turns out his business was mixed in with the restaurant behind him with the same name. Not sure what the story is there but had a read through the reviews that were actually for his surf school and saw everyone that worked with him loved him.

I came back and booked in 5 days with him and it was awesome. He communicated about conditions the next day and when to meet the night before, taught me and constantly tweaked what I was doing, and provided some great perspective on the philosophical side of surfing that I didn’t know I needed. The guy is a legend. If you want to learn to surf,...

The margs we're absurdly large, like too big and over the top. We asked for small ones and he said they don't have anymore of them, which makes absolutely no sense (serious eye roll). When we asked the server for aguachiles as an app he told us that it wasn't enough for all of us, but then the plate was huge and we had 2 of them because of him saying that and it was too much food. By the time we were leaving i was more "drunk" than i think I ever have been in my life (and i drink a lot) and i actually kinda wondered what they put in those drinks (maybe ghb because we all blacked out and we're experienced drinkers lol)... So keep that in mind if you get this place recommended to you by a local. Feel pretty duped and taken advantage of and won't be back considering...