Los Angeles Surf Lessons

The Los Angeles Business Journal referred to Campsurf as “Los Angeles’ premier surf school.” We are also the official surf school of the city of Manhattan Beach -they have contracted us to run their Department of Parks and Recreation surf classes since 1997. We have also been featured on ESPN, Fit TV, K-CAL channel 9, the CBS Morning show(national), HD Net’s Get Out! and the nationally syndicated TV show “The Doctors” among others.

KFWB On Your Corner: Camp Surf

Our Instructors are what really set Campsurf apart from other Los Angeles surf schools. Our staff consists of former owner of Peninsula Surf Shop, Chris Brown, top competitive surfer, Tommy Ostendorf and Mark Gerold who have 12 years teaching with us. Our crew also includes professional surfers Jamie Meistrell, Chris Wells and Kelly Zaun, Tavarua lifeguard and boatman Jason Napolitano, the #1 rated surfer in the NSSA college division, Dayton Silva, as well as long-time head instructors Taylor Hein and Dave “Kawika Tree” Pahk. All of our instructors bring their surf culture and stoke to our students. The bottom line is we have a very experienced, professional staff. We pay our instructors a much higher rate than most other schools-because they are worth it. We are stoked on our crew and can guarantee you will not find a more experienced group of surf instructors at any other surf school. Check out Our Instructors page to meet the crew and see for yourself.

All of our lessons emphasize safety and fun, but we also take the next step and teach our students to view the ocean with a surfer’s eye so they can safely and confidently ride the waves on their own as soon as they’re ready.

Our lessons and camps take place at Rosecrans Avenue in beautiful Manhattan Beach-just 2 miles south of the Los Angeles International Airport(LAX). We believe this particular location, with it’s stunning beach and consistent, year-round surf is the best location in Los Angeles to take a surf lesson.

We have been permitted through the County of Los Angeles to run surf lessons here since 1997. Beware of other surf schools that claim to do surf lessons in Manhattan Beach, but actually do business at inferior locations. Still other fly-by-night operations will do business here in Manhattan Beach, but are not permitted by the County to do so. These “surf schools” rarely carry insurance and their instructors are generally ill-equipped and under trained. Amusingly, a few of these newcomers have actually plagiarized directly from our website and other literature.

A quick check of our competitors website’s showed a few claiming to be “Los Angeles’ premier surf school”. This is hysterical because that phrase came directly out of an article written about us in the Los Angeles Business Journal. Unlike our competitors who “borrowed” the phrase from us, we didn’t give ourselves that title. It was bestowed on us by the most respected business journal in Southern California.

Another interesting fact emerged while glancing at our competitor’s sites; Namely, we have the best prices around. Our lessons are an hour and a half long. A Private Lesson is $90. The more people you have in your lesson, the cheaper the price per person: A 2-person lesson is $80/person, a 3-person lesson is $70/person and a group of 4-10 people is $60/person. All of our prices include the rental of the board and wetsuit during your surf lesson. If you compare those prices to our competitors, you will be amazed. Most other surf schools in the Los Angeles area charge much more-generally between $100-$150 for a private lesson.

To summarize; best staff, best location, best prices and a long, proven track record of safety and satisfied customers. Just a few of the reasons to choose Campsurf…