Jonny Ziegler, Author at Sandbar Surf School

Beginner surfing WITH a safety surf leash, especially in a surf lesson, is 100% endorsed by our local law enforcement, city officials and local doctors.

Written by Jonny Ziegler on June 18, 2024. Posted in Surf School.

This is the bottom line.

We at Sandbar Surf School have been teaching surf lessons with safety surf leashes, the right way, since what seems the beginning of time. Anyone who tells you that you don’t need one is SCAMMING you and TAKING from your experience and a RIPOFF. Surfing without surf leashes is dangerous and is recommended by absolutely NO ONE in the industry except scammer and ripoff surf companies stuffing large numbers of unknowing beginner surfers into group lessons where everyone is wasting the precious energy that they DO have CHASING their surfboards ALL LESSON LONG.

Go out on any pier and look down. Your will see ZERO surfers without leashes.

Even ask Siri. Your own phone which taps into every single online document ever produced. It will say the very same. We promise you. Because we’re looking out for you.

~Jonny, Bucky and the staff at Sandbar Surf School

Rollin’ on into 2024!

Written by Jonny Ziegler on February 24, 2024. Posted in Surf School.

Spring Break and Summer Surf Camp dates set and open for registration now!

Coming out of this wet winter we are so excited to bring you the dates for our Spring Break & Summer Camps for 2024:

Surf camp surf lessons are available on the following dates. We are also open weekends as well so, yeah…that’s pretty much every day this spring & summer we’ll be doing surf lessons. Book your class early to make sure your spots are confirmed!

March 11 – March 15

March 18 – March 22

March 25 – March 29

April 1 – April 5

April 8 – April 12

April 15 – April 19

April 22 – April 26

April 29 – May 3

May 6 – May 10

SUMMER DATES:

May 27 – May 31

June 3 – June 7

June 10 – June 14

June 17 – June 21

June 24 – June 28

July 1 – July 5

July 8 – July 12

July 15 – July 19

July 22 – July 26

July 29 – August 2

August 5 – August 9

August 12 – August 16

August 19 – August 23

August 26 – August 30

If you have any questions, of course, please give us a call on our surf line at 8058357873. If you have special itinerary, Jonny will always try and work with your planning needs. Mahalo and we look forward to another AWESOME summer from the #stewardsofstoke 😎

What a summer on into fall 2023

Written by Jonny Ziegler on October 23, 2023. Posted in Surf School.

This summer was phenomenal! We met so many of you and had the absolutely the best summer teaching our favorite thing to do with ALL y’alls. Our weather right now is getting BETTER so we’re so excited for our Physical Education for Homeschool Surf Days (Heartland Charter School, Yosemite Valley Charter School & Monarch River Charter School), our travelers coming through Highway 1 and all the rest of our future surfers from everywhere else. We’ve even had some of our oldest surfers coming through learning the sport for the very first time at the oldest age of 77! Continuing on with our fall AMAZING weather we hope to see many more of you coming through as well as our graduate surfers coming back to us to do it all over again. See you at the beach!!!

Jonny, Bucky & the Sandbar Brigade 😎🐶🏄‍♂️ #sandbarsurfschool #stewardsofstoke #learntosurf #hwy1 #indievans #jucyvans #escapevans #vanlife #pismobeach

Sandbar Surf Instructor Chance F teaching a green wave pop-up

California Spring Break beginners learn to surf Pismo Beach waves 🏄

Written by Jonny Ziegler on April 19, 2023. Posted in Surf School.

Mini photo dump from Sandbar Surf School Spring Break 2023! We had such a blast with the surfers that joined us for our first non-pandemic spring break in a while! Along with some of our homeschoolers and a non-profit group from California’s Central Valley….we had an AMAZING 3 weeks of spring breakers.

Summer is almost here!

It’s on. 😎

SURF CAMP 2023 DATES

Written by Jonny Ziegler on March 3, 2023. Posted in Surf School.

Spring and Summer Surf Camp Dates are set! Book early and get your dates set! Get Jonny on the ChatBot or call/text the surf cell at 8058357873 if you’ve got any Q’s

Surf Instructor Ryan S. setting one up for a nice ride

2023 Spring Break 3 & 5 Day Weekday Surf Camp Dates

830 & 1030 Lesson times open

Monday March 6 – Friday March 10 2023

Monday March 13 – Friday March 17 2023

Monday March 20 – Friday March 24 2023

Monday March 27 – Friday March 31 2023

Monday April 3 – Friday April 7 2023

Monday April 10 – Friday April 14 2023

Monday April 17 – Friday April 21 2023

Monday April 24 – Friday April 28 2023

May 2023 – we’re open – just go to online availability

2023 Summer Break 3 & 5 Day Weekday Surf

Camp Dates

830. 1030 & 12:30 Best conditions open 😎

Monday May 29 – Friday June 2 2023

Monday June 5 – Friday June 9 2023

Monday June 12 – Friday June 16 2023

Monday June 19 – Friday June 23 2023

Monday June 26 – Friday June 30 2023

Wed July 5 – Friday June 7 (3 day camp only,

sorry we’re closed July 4 🇺🇸 it’s our Halfway point)

Monday July 10 – Friday July 14 2023

Monday July 17 – Friday July 21 2023

Monday July 24 – Friday July 28 2023

Monday July 31 – Friday Aug 4 2023

Monday Aug 7 – Friday Aug 11 2023

Monday Aug 14 – Friday Aug 18 2023

Monday Aug 21 – Friday Aug 25 2023

Monday Aug 28 – Friday Sept 1 2023

Of course if you have any changes or modifications or want to do weekends even that’s totally cool! Please get in contact with Jonny at 8058357873 – Text with as much advance as possible is best so Jonny has a record of what’s changed to staff your surf day properly and awesomely like ALWAYS!

See you all soon! 😎

Monarch butterfly season going STRONG!!!

Written by Jonny Ziegler on February 12, 2023. Posted in Surf School.

Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Season February 2023

MONARCH SEASON IS LATE OCTOBER THRU FEBRUARY

Sandbar Surf School ❤️’s our local area’s butterflies!!! 🦋 😎

Smack dab in-between our office at 215 Grand Ave. Grover Beach and our surf lesson meeting spot is a wonderful natural eucalyptus grove that is BOUNTIFUL with beautiful Monarch Butterflies!

The Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove is one of only five sites in the state that has counts of over 10,000 butterflies annually. Each year thousands of vibrant orange and black Monarch Butterflies flock to Pismo State Beach, a location essential to their successful migration, seeking shelter from the freezing northern winters. From late October to February, the butterflies cluster in the limbs of towering, majestic Eucalyptus trees flanking a riparian estuary that flows to the Pacific Ocean. The grove is easily accessible from CA State Highway 1 at the south boundary of the city limits of Pismo Beach.

Current Monarch Count – November 30, 2022 = 19,177

MONARCH GROVE COUNTS

JANUARY 2022 – 22,000
JANUARY 22, 2020 – 1,995
DECEMBER 30, 2019 – 3,000
DECEMBER 12, 2019 – 3,926
NOVEMBER 27, 2019 – 6,735
NOVEMBER 20, 2019 – 5,380
NOVEMBER 8, 2019 – 3,370

Last Count from 2018 season: January 2019 = 3,077.
Last Count from 2017 season: December 2017 = 12,075.
Last count from 2016 season on February 5, 2016 = 28,000+

Let’s do this 2023!

Written by Jonny Ziegler on January 4, 2023. Posted in Surf School.

Gold Medalist Casey Proud, Team Hawaii adaptive surfer, carried by Team Hawaii members Aaron Paulk & Jonny Ziegler photo credit: Tanya Walker

2022. What can we say? 🤷‍♂️ We learned a lot. Adapted a lot. Found out where our boundaries were and broke them! 💪 It was an unbelievable year to say the least. At Sandbar Surf School we are so excited to look to the future! 😎 All of the instructors are super excited and chompin’ at the bit to be your guides, once again, into the amazing sport of surfing. We are so grateful and proud to be the best band in the land to bring this sport to you as no other school or group even comes close to the Sandbar way of learning the coolest, most free and beautiful sport throughout the WORLD that nature has given to us……and as you can see, we’re not biased at ALL! 💯

Holly! Our new 23′ travel trailer set up for you with surfboards, bikes and skateboards. And a couple 805 beers on us. 🍻

This year we have a few new features for you all to take care of your surfing accommodations and travel needs! 🏩 Famous local hotel the Madonna Inn has their themed hotel rooms WELL…….We’ve got something JUST for our surfing couples and families!!! We bring to your our “805 Surfers Paradise Package!” 🏄 A travel trailer surf themed available to rent wherever you want (except for the dunes 😬) complete with bikes, skate & surfboards included! 🚴‍♀️ All you have to do is reserve the campsite, call us or book “Holly” our ‘805 surf trailer’ on the Outdoorsy app (Airbnb for RV’s) or website and let us know where to drop it and we’ll do all the set up! https://www.outdoorsy.com/rv-rental/grover-beach_ca/2022_winnebago_micro-minnie-flex-package_334730-listing at or just give us a call at 8058357873 for availability. ☎️

We also want to thank you for making us at Sandbar Surf School the 🏆 number 1 surf school in California’s Central Coast. We work hard 🏋️ to bring to you the coolest sport in the land 😁 and thank you from the bottom of our hearts ❤️ for trusting us to be your chosen guides. 🙏 This is the Pacific Ocean and it’s big and wide so who you trust in it MATTERS! 💯 It is such a reward for us to be able to see the light 💡 in you and your children’s eyes 👀 after we help you through the basics and see the reward come out during the lesson. 😌 During repeat lessons we get to watch you progress through the journey as a surfer and we cannot thank you 🙏 enough for all of that joy. Day in and day out, we’re here for YOU. Thank you for calling and wanting to learn about the sport that we call our everyday playground….and can be yours too. 🌴

We look forward to serving all of your surfing needs once again in 2023! Send it!

Jonny, Bucky 🐶 and all of da crew at Sandbar Surf School. 😎

Remember that one time when Buzzfeed did a story on SLO county and Sandbar Surf School?

Written by Jonny Ziegler on September 7, 2022. Posted in Surf School, Uncategorized.

“So, are you from here?” I asked Jonny Ziegler as I alternately writhed and muscled my way into a wetsuit in the parking lot of Pismo Beach. Ziegler, owner of Sandbar Surf School, watched patiently as his coppery tan legs dangled from the open container of his box truck. It was stocked chock-full of surfboards and wetsuits of varying sizes and colors. This one seemed too small for me.

“Born and raised. Where else?” he said matter-of-factly with an amicable grin on his sunglass-clad face, as if there could be no other answer. Jonny’s reply seemed odd to me at the time, but I would come to learn that this was a lot of locals’ attitude toward San Luis Obispo County, aka SLO CAL. But as a native of NorCal, I couldn’t say I felt the same way about California. I moved to loud, buzzing, hectic-would-be-an-understatement New York when I was 18 and only looked back intermittently.

Still, boasting 315 days of sunshine a year, coastal views that rival the Mediterranean, and a bounty of fresh seafood and produce, it’s easy to see how the Central Coast of California is a place few can imagine leaving. From Ragged Point and San Simeon in the North, where William Randolph Hearst famously constructed his elaborate estate, to the sandy dunes of Nipomo in the South and stretching just far enough inland to lie against the San Joaquin Valley, San Luis Obispo County is a place tourists flocking to San Francisco and Los Angeles have somehow left largely untouched.

Despite the appeal of dramatic cliffsides plunging into the Pacific and the beach towns sleepily spooning them, unpretentious SLO CAL has managed to preserve its essential Caliness. Its bucolic surfer vibes, old-school vintage stores, coastal wilderness, and nothing-if-not-casual atmosphere all remain intact, rolling along placidly, day by day. It was easy to slip into the effortless speed of San Luis Obispo County, even for a New Yorker. It was as slow as you’d expect, but not once was it boring.

Having seen so much of the coast, we now decided to go for a dip in the ocean. We drove a short distance to the quintessentially Californian surf town of Pismo Beach, which is exactly what you’d imagine if you pictured vintage California — surf shops, palm trees, vintage vibes, and a 1,200-foot pier. This is where Jonny comes in. Local, native, all-around good-natured guy, Jonny is the third owner of Sandbar Surf School and an active surfer himself.

After assisting me into the wetsuit, he assigned me to surf instructor Karlie, a Cali girl if you ever knew one. Blonde and tan, a yoga instructor and kinesiology student who learned to surf in San Diego, she gave me many pieces of instruction on what to do with my body in those two hours. But only one piece of general advice stuck with me when it came to standing on a board: “The wave’s coming, so you gotta do something.” Absurdly simple, and yet it worked.