HELP “SAVE” KAHUNA BOB’S SURF SCHOOL

    A lot of surfing on soft boards has gone down since KAHUNA BOB first had ‘the vision’ after working two summers on the beach for Ted Rhuman and the Oceanside Aquatics Camp back in 1984-85. 
   
   Bob’s vision was to offer surfing not just to teens and preteens in a surf camp setting during the summer but to open up the world’s greatest sport to people of all ages in a more controlled semi-private setting and to offer two hour classes that would run year round. At first the vision was just that. A lot of hurdles had to be crossed to even get it started.  Equipment needed to be purchased, lots of equipment; spring suits, full suits, rash guards, soft surfboards, leashes, booties and so forth and so on.  More importantly the perception of surfing schools and surf camps needed to be changed. At first going out into the big world with his surfing school vision Bob faced many non believers. His crude hand drawn flyers many times went from the door of the surf shops, to the floor and then quickly enough into the trash can.  Bob’s crackpot scheme and ideas were ridiculed by his friends, surf shop owners and even his own newlywed wife, Peggy. Like most new ideas it took several years to go from a vision to money making viable business during which time Bob also worked an eclectic mix of jobs. Working as a doorman at the famous Belly-Up Tavern, construction laborer and even a part time auto detailer, Bob made ends meet until his true passion of being a surf instructor/beach boy could be realized. 

    By 1990’s the idea finally started to pick up steam around the area and the phone began to ring a bit more often.  Wishing to be even more involved in the sport of Hawaiian Kings, Bob took on the mostly volunteer job of surf coach at the University of California San Diego. Blessed with some very talented surfers and the use of video analysis Bob’s team won the 1990 NSSA National Championship at the pier in Oceanside and narrowly missed repeating it in 1991. By 1992 Bob had to remove his coaching hat as more and more of his time was spent teaching his dream job.  Bob established the surfing program at the Hotel del Coronado and despite being scoffed at by the suits higher up at the hotel, the first summer their learn to surf program became the most popular outside activity at the hotel by the summer of 1995.
   
   By now the far fetched idea of a surf school was becoming more and more accepted and after several newspaper and magazine articles on this new and exciting idea, things started to roll.  The first of Bob’s many friends to approach him about starting up their own surf school was Pat Weber.  Pat, a fellow tandem surfer from the longboard club circuit asked for help and promised to stay in the Pacific Beach, Tourmaline area of San Diego to not be in direct competition with Kahuna. So, with that handshake agreement in mind, Bob loaned Pat several soft surfboards, some other equipment and most importantly some solid advice on how his operation worked, Pat and Lynn Weber’s San Diego Surfing Academy was born. Two years later Pat was then operating out of the San Elijo campground in Cardiff, which is just two miles south of Encinitas where Bob operates his program. The next guy to come along was Greg Kessler who worked for Bob one summer who had learned from the inside how Bob conducted his business and with the help of a financial backer started up the Eli Howard Surf School.  Then he outbid Pat and moved right into the campground in Cardiff bumping out the San Diego Surf Academy so Pat moved his operation just four miles north to the South Carlsbad State Campground.  Now Bob was flanked on both sides by their two surf schools. Pretty cool, huh? NOT!  The most disturbing development of all was then another guy named Jerry Kantor.  Now Jerry worked off and on for Bob over two seasons and while he was not the most healthy of surfer types that Bob usually employed, he was a nice enough guy and down on his luck so Bob would get him some shifts on occasion so he could make ends meet. Eventually after numerous complaints from Bob’s best instructors he had to let Jerry go because he just wasn’t cutting it. Three weeks later Jerry started his own Leucadia Surf School at the Grandview Street location in Leucadia which only eight blocks north of Beacons where Bob operates year round.  Because he had a clever website even he steers business away from Kahuna Bob’s School. Besides these three surf schools in the North County at least 25 more surf schools have sprung up and are running in San Diego County alone in 2008. I guess you could say that the whole surf school thing kind of really took off!
   
   Nowadays Kahuna Bob’s school has been lost in a haze of sheer numbers that surround him and although after 23 years of pouring his heart and soul into his business, learning each year how to improve the students experience, he has fewer and fewer phone calls coming in. Bob is also at a disadvantage because he plays by the rules. He spends over $3,000.00 a year for his million dollar liability coverage while most of his competition gets by without any insurance at all or on only a bogus cut rate form of insurance. Bob also hires adult skilled instructors that he has personally trained in his methods who have been with him for years and he pays out a minimum of $20.00 per hour to ensure quality and safety, unlike his competitors who mostly pay untrained teenagers a minimum wage.  This is one of the reasons that the ‘other’ surf schools give a bare minimum surfing lesson experience. Kahuna’s Surf School is more like that really great gourmet one of kind burger restaurants where the patrons are all treated like family and the food always tastes great.  The patrons we service feel like part of our family because Bob, Peggy, Tim, Rob, Kevin, Veronica and Chad along with all of our other instructors truly care about school, our students, clients, day campers and are willing to go that extra mile, work our tails off to ensure a quality, fun, informative and most importantly a safe surfing lesson! But here we are, at the beginning of the 2008 summer season and Kahuna Bob’s gourmet restaurant is surrounded by: 2 Burger Kings, 3 McDonalds, a Carl’s Jr., 7 Jack in the Box’s and there’s a new Wendy’s going up right across the street.  And guess what, they are all serving burgers too. Fast food frozen or micro waved heat lamp heated burgers but so called burgers none the less. All of the other surf schools have tried to copy Bob’s recipe. They did just that, they tried to copy but not one of them has gotten the recipe correct.  Either they didn’t copy the recipe accurately, missed a few ingredients or they have forgotten the secret sauce. It takes more than the teenaged instructor and the soft surfboards to run a surf school if you want to do it right.  Apparently these other surf schools care more about their bottom line than their clients, guests and students.
   
   Well, that is it in a nutshell.  Is Bob a little bitter about the way his vision has gone down?  Yes, and understandably so, but hey, it is what it is.  Now Bob’s school is in the fight of its life. Luckily Bob has never been a quitter and he is going to go down swinging and you still have a chance to make a difference.  Come to the original gourmet surf school and get the experience you and your children pay for. Pretenders and second best is just that, second best.

Tim Johnson
Kahuna Bob’s Surf School
Graduate class of ‘92