If you find a surf school and it says “Come surf in the Hawaii of Europe” close the tab and look for something else XD.
The surf market is saturated. Yes people, surfing sells a lot and at the end of the day you decide if you go to a good surf restaurant of surfiing or if you go to the Mc Donalds of surfing.
In the tourist surf destinations most concepts tend to sell very well the experience and the world of surf life and all the nonsense fake lifestyle. Then the reality of the class and the experience in general is a very different from the photo. Normally much less glamorous XD. Mc Donalds quality so we understand each other.
Here I leave you a few tips listed to have a better eye when looking for a surf school in Fuerteventura:
Find out how many students are in the groups. I have been a surf coach for 10 years and I have another opinion of my own. Group surfing is a magic formula to keep a surf business thriving and maximizing profit but it is inversely proportional to the quality of the class. No matter how professional and attentive a surf teacher is, maintaining the safety and quality of the training in groups of more than 3 people is hell. Another very different thing is what you understand by quality and safety that needs an extra blog.
Look for concepts with small groups and with a strong emphasis on quality and professionalism rather than selling you on how cool surfing is and all the bullshit. It tends to be the smaller concepts that offer the quality and genuine experience. Basically for a very basic reason. The big surf companies have a high turnover of teachers and a heavy workload in season. It will be difficult to find a teacher with high specialization and motivation. Again, it is very subjective how much especialitzation or patience you need from a teacher.
Reviews are a reliable indicator of what the concept is really like. But…ALERT, there are a few tricks that I have learned as a consumer that can help you detect irregularities. From my point of view, when I detect that reviews have been created with bad account practices that site automatically inspires me with the exact opposite of what it is trying to convey. I’m sure the same thing happens to you. Take a look at these key points: Reviewer Profile, Amount of Details, Date of Review, Language and Writing Style, Context and Unique Details. Basically, if is not genuine, is not good sign at all.
Look at the price of the class. Very low prices really means that they offer a tourist service and with a mediocre quality. “Vamos a la playa oh oh oh”, take some pictures, the young instructor will try to show how cool and wild it is and so on every day. I do not dare to give a precise valuation about prices. Just make your own maths and think what is hoenst and fair. I have seen surf lessons for 30€ in groups of 7. Do the math and think how motivated can be an instructor or if a medium/ big surf concept can really retain a good professional with a salary close to the minimum wage. ( Yes, I worked for 7 years and the salary is ridiculous for the responsibility and intensity of the work.) It’s the same old story: cheap is expensive.
If you follow these ideas you will find what you are looking for and surely the good stuff is not in the first positions of Google. Literally the more you get to know Google the more you learn that the ones at the top are the big guys who have the money and resources to be there. Honest and professional conceptors don’t tend to have as much marketing presence because they don’t spend nearly as much resources on SEO. These concepts work better by word of mouth and very often they are in middle positions.
Another thing is that if you really want a tourist experience, then yes, you will have it very easy, grab the cheap stuff and enjoy the show…
Jordi
