I reserved a 2 hour group lesson for 8 people. The reservation process was smooth, and we were asked to constitute 2 groups of 4 and asked for our weights and shoe sizes, and we informed of the pick up time, provided with a voucher and were all set. Pick up was smooth and on time.
When we arrived, we were provided with rash guards, reef shoes, boards and had a good dry land introduction. We took to the water, and that is where, as they say, it all went off the rails.
There were no "groups of 4". The teenage girls and one of the adults got up and seemed to receive proper instruction. This is what I was told after the fact as I did not see any of this. Myself and one of the other adults were adrift and received no instruction at all. The staff blamed us for this, and told us it was our own fault because we drifted. The other adult (not I, thankfully!) fell into the water and required 90 minutes of medical attention as she was incapacitated from swallowing sea water. Thankfully, as I am physician, I provided the supervision and EMTs did not have to be called. If I wasn't there, the situation was of such severity that intervention would have been required. The staff was nowhere to be found.
The staff came to get me out of the water after one hour to tell me the lesson was over. I had been paddling about for an hour without supervision. I informed them that it was booked for 2 hours, and they told me I was wrong. They had not bothered to verify the voucher at check in. When we were out of the water, I showed them the voucher. They told me the voucher was wrong.
When we returned to our hotel, one of the staff asked to come in to speak to our concierge who did the booking. He accused our concierge of making Surf HNL look bad (within my earshot) and offered no apology of any kind. All of this was our fault.
The only "remedy" was to offer us a refund of the difference between a one hour and a two hour lesson. The staff failed to check the voucher at initial presentation. If they had, the 1 vs. 2 hour issue would not have occurred. They would have given us 2 hours then, offered to reschedule to 2 hours another time, or had us agree ahead of time to one hour. Next, out on the water, there would have been adequate supervision of all 8 of us. With respect, the job of Surf HNL. Next, when the mistake was noted, Surf HNL abdicated all responsibility about it. This is both unprofessional and unethical. I gave management of Surf HNL a whole week to respond to this before posting this review. They claim to have behaved in an exemplary fashion, and lay all the blame on the hotel concierge (who, in their words, requires "education") and myself, who does not appreciate everything that was done for me. I was also accused of being rude to the staff. After asking politely for redress repeatedly, I will admit to a single swear word, for which I apologized in real time.
The market for surf lessons in Waikiki is crowded. even if we limit it to those that pick up at hotels, provide shoes and rash guards and offer a range of lessons (surf/SUP, private/semi-private/group), it is still crowded. Surf HNL is problematic in at least three respects:
1. When, according to them, a mistake in the booking was made, they did not offer proper redress, and engaged in an immediate blame game.
2. In the water, they did not ensure proper safety of the students in their charge.
3. When given a chance to address issues after the fact, they doubled down, and ramped up the blame game. I do believe they do not think they did anything wrong.
Please consider other vendors for your surf lessons in Waikiki. If you decide to go ahead with Surf HNL, I strongly advise you to ask all the hard questions ahead of time and call out any issues quickly so that you do not run into the same problems our 3 families did.