My experience was fantastic!
At first I questioned whether the two-hour private lesson was really necessary… Perhaps I could do a one-hour lesson and then just rent a surf board after to practice on my own. After a short conversation with Shawn, he convinced me otherwise and afterward I soon realized it was WELL worth the investment.
Aside from Shawn’s great coaching, it was great to be out with someone who understood the water and could give me insight on which waves to catch – this, as I was taught, was the hardest thing. From this, I caught wave after wave. Shawn personalized the lesson to me and directed his attention to suit my ability. Being a coach myself, I understand and appreciate his level of expertise in this manner.
It was a tremendously good time out there: catching waves, face-planting, making mistakes, and standing up to ride some long ones. All of it. Shawn lead this experience in a relaxed and joyful way and shared some great stories with me. He seemed to genuinely enjoy being out on the water. I suppose his depiction of being more comfortable on the water than on the land was true! Growing up on Oahu will do that I suppose…
By far the biggest deciding factor for choosing to surf with GSH was simply talking to Shawn before heading out. The day before I signed up I strolled the beach to explore my options. I talked to Shawn first and gained some great insight on what you guys offered and what might suit me best. Afterward I talked to a couple other places and had a much different experience… I won’t go in to detail because it isn’t my goal to put down any of these other businesses, but it seemed they didn’t care much. So, Gone Surfing easily became my first pick and I was there for my lesson early the next morning.
Thank you guys for providing such great service and send my thanks to Shawn for being such a great coach. I am grateful for this to be my first experience surfing and I won’t soon forget it. My only regret is that I don’t live by the ocean…