Hot off the presses

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

One of the most important success factors for a new surfer is to select the proper board size. Yet, the vastness of the internet seems to make board selection more difficult than ever. To help bring clarity to beginning surfers, we offer a simple approach which has worked well for hundreds of Aventuras customers since we set up shop in 2019.

NOTE: If you’re looking for quick, accurate recommendations, try our Product Finder or our Board Sizing Chart. For those interested in a deeper dive, continue reading below.  

Buoyancy and Flotation
The guiding scientific concept behind buoyancy and flotation is an ancient discovery called the Archimedes Principle (246 BCE). It states that liquids exert buoyant, upward force against submerged objects. The “buoyant force” is equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by the submerged object. But how does this relate to flotation? According to Archimedes, the density of the submerged object is crucial: for example, if the average density of a surfboard is less than the surrounding ocean water, it will float (and vice versa: if the density is higher, it will sink). 

So how can we use this information to choose the right foam surfboard? For a beginning surfer, it’s important to have a board that provides complete or nearly complete buoyancy, meaning that in pool-like conditions the rider could float on the board with little to no submersion. This is because most new surfers do not yet have the paddling strength to propel both themselves and a submerged board out of the water and into a wave (trust us, it took many years for the shortboard rippers at your local break to get there). Just as important, a board large enough to float the rider will also provide plenty of stability.

How to Choose the Right Size

For a beginning surfer, a good rule of thumb is to start with a board that provides complete or nearly complete buoyancy as shown in Exhibit B above, plus plenty of length for paddling efficiency and stability.  On the board volume side of things, it’s a simple equation: take your body weight plus the board weight (15 pounds is a decent reference to use for Aventuras boards), then subtract the result of board liters x 2.2.  If the result is a positive number, the board volume is sufficient.  If the result is 0 or slightly negative (up to -30 pounds), the volume is still acceptable, but we recommend this range only for those who swim regularly and therefore have a solid base of paddling strength.  We’ll save you the trouble of looking up the board liters and some calculator work though with a simple chart for Aventuras boards below. As for length, a good rule for beginners is to select a board that is 2-1/2 to 3 feet longer than your height for adults and 2 to 2-1/2 feet for kids.  Here’s our sizing chart, for ease of selection:

Stability vs. Handling/Paddling Out
To get some additional perspective, we spoke with Scott Smith, owner of Central Coast Surfboards.  Scott and his team have sold countless surfboards over the years and their shop is a pillar of the local surf community.  Here’s what Scott had to say: “One of the things we share with our new aspiring surfers is that some elements that can make a surfboard easier to surf, like length and volume, can also make it harder to actually get out to the waves. The longer the board, the more glide it will have for paddling, so it will catch the wave earlier and give the rider more time to set and stand up. It all comes down to scale: putting a small child on an 8’0″ board would be fine if a person will be pushing them into waves, but if they were to paddle out on their own, it could be too much for them to hold on to. For grown kids and adults who see their surfing heroes ripping small boards and want to emulate them by starting on a shortboard, they will likely frustrate themselves with a low wave count and potentially give up; it is best to start with a bigger board.”

Sizing for Kids and Teenagers
To learn more about sizing for young surfers, we spoke with Matty Mitchell, owner of Aqualand of the Free, a thriving youth surf and water skills camp based in Long Beach and North Orange County, CA. According to Matty, a board that is too long can hinder the progression of young surfers: “An 8-foot foam surfboard is generally a good, all-purpose size for many adults, but for kids, it can be a problem. Since most foam surfboards have minimal tail rocker, kids end up pearling (aka nosediving), because they don’t have enough weight to keep the nose up. For our camps, we have some general rules of thumb with sizing, but every kid is unique and we take into account multiple factors, including their paddling strength and confidence in the water.”

Conclusion
Choosing the right foam surfboard does not have to be an extremely complicated process. The most important thing for a beginner is to select a board that will make it as easy as possible to paddle out into the waves and stand up for the first time. That’s the goal, right? As a result, for most people we recommend to start with the largest size foam board you can transport to the beach and handle out in the water. Yes, the same advice Chandler gave in epic fashion in North Shore. But the great thing about learning to surf today is that you don’t have to head out in a “canoe” made of Koa wood, you just need a good foam surfboard. See you out there!

Written by Adventuras Surf – Brett Wellington

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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 😎

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

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. 😎

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

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 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+
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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! 💯

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. 😎

“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.

Sometimes when I look back and see the reviews I get a little teary seeing how we’ve affected people with their new found love for surfing 🏄‍♂️🥲❤️

Check out the amazing reviews we are getting on google, yelp and tripadvisor!