Kula Nalu Ocean Sports

I’ve been training with HK at Kula Nalu for 9 months now. I’m writing this review from two perspectives: 1. As a parent with kids in surfing lessons 2. As a surfer with over 30 years of consistent experience looking to improve.
First, I’ve had my son in surfing lessons with HK and also watched him give lessons to others. HK has a certain technique that seems to click with kids. I’ve tried to teach my own kids for years with limited success. They would have fun, but had trouble standing up and really riding the wave. After watching HK, I realized that I was teaching the wrong techniques! After one private lesson, my son was popping up on waves properly and actually riding them in. HK also knows how to change his teaching method depending on the age and goals. He’s great with young kids in the water for the first time (he has several kids of his own) to serious teens looking to improve contest results (he was a contest surfer for many years and still competes).
Secondly, for an old barney like myself, he has completely changed and improved my surfing. Actually, I’ve been surfing for over 30 years and I’ve surfed all over the world in waves big and small, but something was missing. Getting older, my level of fitness was not where it needed to be and I always wondered why a deep barrel or really strong carve or maneuver was the exception rather than the rule. After my first session with HK, I knew why. He corrected some bad habits I’ve had since I learned how to surf: Paddling and taking off incorrectly. These changes gained me a valuable second or two on the wave that put me in the pocket, in better control with better speed.
That’s only scratching the surface as we continue to work on my strength, posture, balance, flexibility, timing and nutrition during twice weekly gym workout sessions. I’m simply in the best shape of my life and my surfing has greatly improved as a result.
HK is part-​Hawaiian and was taught his techniques by masters and legends. His style varies from relaxed Aloha if you’re on vacation and just looking to try surfing for the first time to serious Aloha if you’re a guy like me that needs some motivation or you’re a charger with dreams of going pro.
HK is an owner-​operator, so keep this in mind when you are calling to book. I’ve seen him successfully outfit large tour groups to local groms. He is a busy guy!

Great family who runs this business. HK is a highly skilled and patient instructor who has a life time of knowledge of the ocean and surfing. He works very well with people of all ages and skill level. He is also accommodative for those with special needs.

I have taken many lessons with HK and his technique is the only one that allows you to really maximize your time in the water. Moreover, he is more than willing to pick you up, even if you have a group of 6 professors.
Thanks HK!

Please see my previous review.
I haven’t had time to schedule another surf lesson, however, when I get some time, HK will be my instructor. Awesome instructor!!!

I never write reviews. But my experience with Kula Nalu was subpar at best.
I purchased a great 2 person voucher in early July from Amazon Local and was really excited to use it. It took a few calls over a few days to finally reach a representative who told me to make a reservation through email. So I sent an email and asked for a Saturday lesson the upcoming week. Come a few more days and I got a reply that said the earliest Saturday lesson they had was a month later. This setback was understandable since, I imagine, surfing lessons in California can be in high demand. But I wish they had mentioned that detail somewhere on their website or when I had called earlier.
A month later, two hours before my scheduled lesson, I received a text that said we would have to reschedule due to bad weather conditions. I understand that there are some things that just can’t be controlled, but I was again told that the next weekend lesson I could schedule would be yet another month away in September.
My sister, who I was planning on taking to the lesson, works in Los Angeles everyday so it is quite difficult for her to plan around a set date. Moreover, having to reschedule two months later from when we wanted to take the lesson is simply too much. In all honesty, the reason why I bought a voucher in July was so that I could use it during my summer vacation and BEFORE IT EXPIRES. By early September I will be starting school again, so these scheduling conflicts were very inconvenient.
I really hate publishing negative feedback :(but I am giving two stars instead of one because of the great reviews I read concerning the training and overall surfing experience. My sister and I really wish we had more time on our hands, but that is simply not the case. Since I could not make it past rescheduling twice, and due to the subpar experience I had with customer service, I can only suggest two things to future buyers: (1) that you have VERY open schedules, and (2) that you have greater patience than I to deal with the recurrence of unpredictable weather conditions.
NOTE: This is a review on customer service! The two stars in no way rates the actual surfing lesson, one that I have heard great things about!
***At least Amazon Local came through with a refund***

This review (⁰⁷⁄₁₂) was taken from their previous page which now is closed:
After an unsuccessful attempt at surfing with a friend who’s a decent surfer and an ineffective lesson by an instructor who wasn’t very experienced/​engaged, I finally stumbled upon the right place! I really didn’t expect much but HK very thoroughly explained everything and I finally caught my first wave on my ~5^th attempt (was so stoked!). My friend and I had a blast, got awesome pictures taken by Tom (thank you, Tom!) and plan to return after practicing the skills we learned today. Very friendly and courteous staff, friendly and welcoming environment, affordable prices, very experienced and professional teachers, I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to learn how to surf!

Lessons, info, and passion is all great. No complaints regarding the actual lesson. The only criticism I may have on that is that our instructor wasn’t very structured. This might be ok for some, but for those who prefer more defined teaching style, you may want to keep this in mind.
My main pain point is the reservation process and getting in touch with the school. My appointment was was canceled twice, one due to surf conditions (unavoidable), the other due to poor planning and scheduling on their part. Getting in contact and making an appointment was very difficult to begin with, and even more difficult rescheduling. Weekend lessons are limited. Just keep that in mind if you decide to work with them.
Reservations are done through email which is tedious and and inefficient. Trying to call to make reservations was not possible, and even requesting a call through email was not fulfilled. I left messages and more often then not, did not receive a call back.
They did apologize for the back and forth, missed calls and lack of follow ups, noting that they had been encountering problems with their phones and call service. They noted that they were in the process addressing phone issues. They tried to make up for it by offering a free land training session in their gym. Though appreciated, I didn’t want to go through the effort of having to schedule that.
I can’t verify that the call/​phone service they used has changed, or if their inefficient appointment process has changed, but that’s how it was in the spring/​summer of 2014. What was meant to be a jump start of a summer off learning to surf, ended up being one lesson near the end of summer.
To note, the reason I kept at it in, trying to schedule a session was 1) I had purchased a deal, 2) my friend really wanted the lessons, 3) I wanted to see how the overall service and lessons would work out.
In the end, it was painfully enough for me not to recommend them.

Extremely disappointed by the naïve unprofessionalism and poor customer service with this place.
All for a surf lesson for two people that never took place and at this point, will never take place. I gave up trying to book yesterday because I was that mad about being given the run around again. We’ve been trying to book and take our surf lesson with them for the last FOUR months!
I bought a Groupon deal for surf lessons for two people back in April 2014 for a birthday present to my boyfriend. I already surf and am a local SoCal native born and bred, down to HB Junior Guards every summer. I am familiar with the surf conditions, tides, and swell directions for most of the breaks in Orange County, from family-​friendly Bolsa Chica to advanced breaks like Trestles. It seems like telling people that the conditions are not safe is their common standard excuse for canceling lessons. While this is probably true most of the time, it wasn’t this past weekend when Katherine called 7pm on Sat night, the night before our 8am lesson Sunday to cancel citing conditions were not safe. I disagree. We were at HB State Beach that same weekend and no it wasn’t bad. I pulled up Surfline and checked all of the detailed conditions. 1 – 2 ft surf at several breaks and fairly low windspeed at 8am. Methinks you’re just busy and can’t manage your schedules and business at all. At 8 am on Sunday, the surf conditions would have been fine. If you wait for perfect conditions in the OC, you’ll be waiting more often than you’ll be surfing.
But wait, let me begin at the actual beginning of this crappy, time-​wasting experience.
After I bought the Groupon, I called the number listed on Groupon and left a voicemail. No answer for a week. Called the number again… this time, a woman answered and says she doesn’t know anything about surf lessons, she’s just watching the kids. Ok, great, you use a personal number for business and personal reasons. Ok, you could let the person answering the number know they might get business related phone calls and take a message (which the woman did only after I asked to leave a message for the owners to call me regarding booking the surf lesson). Again, no call back for another two weeks. I gave up calling after a few more voicemails that went unanswered and decide to dig through their website for an email. Ok no email listed but there’s a general contact form. I had to fill this out twice to get a reply finally. The email thread goes from July through September. Basically, summer is busy which I was totally understanding about and so we booked for the beginning of September. Then that gets cancelled because of the hurricane off the coast, again totally understandable. How they cancelled was frantically calling the day before like 2−3x to absolutely make sure I got the voicemail and to confirm the lesson was cancelled. I was at work, some of us do that for money, and so I couldn’t answer the phone on the spot but I called back and left a voicemail barely 20 min later. I specifically also said I’d write them an email to confirm the lesson cancellation and to find out when we could rebook. No email answer back and I get a text message the next day asking to confirm the cancellation. Uh, yes by voicemail and by email. Oh wait, you don’t check either or respond to either mediums well or in a timely manner, my bad.
Finally we rebook by phone as I requested directly from Katherine instead of going back and forth by email again over a few weeks like the first time trying to book the first appointment. Then the cancellation late Sat evening, the night before our lesson again. I’m done. You’ve wasted enough of my time. I’ll go back to booking my boyfriend surf lessons with Kim Hamrock or any of the other dozens of surf lesson outfits as I should have originally done from day 1. If you don’t want to or can’t keep the appointment, just say so and stop jerking me around. I don’t know if it’s because we had the Groupon deal but you made me feel dismissed and completely unappreciated as a customer. I was never a priority and I had to chase you and work too hard for something that never got off the ground. Seems like I am definitely not the only problem you’ve had with communicating with customers in a timely manner and effectively, so maybe this is something you should work on. Hire a high school kid, there’s plenty that could field phone calls and emails for you if you’re both busy running the lessons and your professional training/​coaching sessions.
Way to not represent true Aloha. Oh, by the way, great customer service with Groupon by phone with a live person on the first call. Got my refund to my card immediately on the phone. Now I have no ties to your disappointing outfit which was set to expire in November and we probably still wouldn’t have had our lesson by then!

HK is truly passionate and a surfer for life. He took me out with challenging waves and I felt comfortable. He’ll push you to get those waves.

Do not use this company when there are so many other options in the area.
After purchasing a voucher for surf lessons for 2 through living social, I had the most difficult time reaching anybody at the company to schedule a time for the lesson. I tried calling several times over the course of a week with no responses whatsoever. I also tried reaching them through their website with little success. After over a week of radio silence I finally was able to trade a couple emails and schedule a lesson. Given limited weekend availabity on their part, we scheduled a lesson in 3 weeks. I was not told where I was supposed to go, who i was supposed to meet with or what I needed to bring. I was just told that somebody would text me prior to the lesson date.
Well, 3 weeks pass and nobody contacts me. So the day prior to the lesson I try to follow up and confirm the lesson by email (the only mode of communication that has been even remotely successful). I sent an email in the morning… no response. i sent another follow up email in the late afternoon… still no response. and this is the day prior to when the lesson was to take place. finally at 10pm, about 12 hours before my 10:30am lesson the next morning I receive an email that says the lesson is cancelled and that we need to reschedule. I email back asking what other lesson times are available as soon as I get this message… again NO RESPONSE. very frustrating.
I fully understand conditions may have not been safe for a beginner, and I am appreciative that they take safety into consideration. What I do not understand and will not tolerate is a business that fails to communicate successfully with their customers and shows no respect to their customers’ time or busy schedules.
There are tons of surf coaches, schools and teachers in the area. i wouldn’t waste my time with this one.

Howard is the man! He’s probably the hardest working surfer out there, not to mention he’s a family man with 2 adorable kids. I’m so glad to have had the opportunity to train with him. I’ve taken a few surf lessons before, so this was more of like a surf excursion. I had misplaced my flipflops at the beach and his wife was really nice with helping me look for it. They really treat you like family.
Looking forward to checking out his training facility!

I purchased a 2 person reservation for for my niece and nephew. They are in town for a week and although are excellent swimmers, had never been surfing before.
Katherine called me the night before our reservation to reschedule from 1030am to 730. It was a little early, but I was happy to do it. I drove to their training facility (which by the way is in Costa Mesa and looks like an industrial area), we were going to be late too so no biggie. ½ hour later she finally texted that the trainer HK was in a wreck and couldn’t make it. So we rescheduled for Sunday and she’d text me the details. Friday came nothing, Saturday came nothing. I called both numbers, and finally got Kate … Yay?
She says there was nothing for Sunday, but she’d try for Monday and she’d let me know EITHER WAY! I get that there are circumstances that come up that are beyond one’s control. I didn’t buy these for myself, but gee wiz! If its not happening then ok but please don’t say you’d let me know either way and NOT RESPOND. It is quite inconvenient to plan things when its «up in the air» with maybe or maybe not (ugh). I noticed in the «agreement» that the customer will be responsible for last minute cancellations, but the customer’s time is also valuable, no?
As a customer, we lose trust if you don’t follow through on what you say you will do, not to mention feeling dismissed.
They did come through with the training finally. No bones about it! This is a WORLD CLASS trainer, there are simulations for the student as what to expect, while in the water, the trainer is giving out valuable techniques and pointers. My niece and nephew had a THRILL of a great time, and this was the highlight of their trip from middle america to the left coast!
KNOS: I am giving 3 stars due to the overall experience (customer service & training) training is first rate, customer service… not so much (return a call/​text-​let the customer know, even bad news is better than no news)

My husband and I have taken two surf lessons with HK and absolutely loved our experience! As a teacher, HK is extremely patient, positive, and passionate, and he wants you to love surfing. After the second lesson my confidence in the water improved immensely, and I am really looking forward to getting out there again soon.
We are also looking forward to training with HK in his gym soon. I highly recommend Kula Nalu for anyone interested in learning to surf and experiencing the ocean in a whole new way.

Kula Nula ocean sports is not for just surf lessons. They also specialize in surf training for competitive sports at any level. As a team rider for Kula Nalu, I believe this training is the best ever! Not only have i gotten physically fit but also it has helped me advance in my surfing. Training with HK is amazing! He pushes my limits and the results truly pay off! Since i have been training at kula nalu i have done better in contests and improved my confidence in the water. One session of coaching makes a huge difference for a contest. If you need a trainer for any water sport, this is the place to go!

I don’t write Unilocal reviews but I created an account to write a review for this company because I felt it was necessary. Customer service is AWESOME!
I am one to do my research before purchasing a lot of things and I reviewed a lot of different surf training companies in the Orange County area before choosing Kula Nalu. I am from Arizona and have never surfed much less been in the ocean and am very glad I chose this company. HK did an awesome job of starting with the basics to make sure I knew what to expect before even getting in the water. I took the lesson with my cousin who also was new to the ocean and surfing. He walked us through ocean safety, drills for what to expect when in the water and even how to communicate with other surfers. I already felt comfortable before even getting into the water! When in the water HK let us go for it on our own and after observations knew exactly what advice/​tips to give us to improve. He was actually in the ocean right next to us giving us advice on what to do when catching waves. The result was we wiped out a lot, got an awesome workout, and even caught a few waves!
The main reason this place is great is because they truly have a passion for seeing people have fun and learn/​experience surfing. Great place I would recommend to anyone looking to learn how to surf or even just get in shape!

Great surf lessons. Their customer service was ABOVE AND BEYOND any of my expectations. Truly good and friendly people.

Learning to surf here really was awesome. My first lesson was with Isabella who was nice, helpful and kind. The way she taught was simple and I got up fairly quickly.
My second lesson was with HK and he taught me some exercises and we went to flat water to practice paddling and getting up.
My third lesson was with HK again and we went out to surf and practice all the information I had gained. It went well, and I now have the confidence to go out and try it on my own.
HK was extremely helpful and after talking to him and his family I learned that as well as great trainers, they are good people. I am so grateful that I took my surf lessons from Kula Nalu!

I bought my husband a private surf lesson with HK for his 31^st birthday. My husband is very athletic and adventurous but surfing was something he had never tried. The service was awesome from beginning to end. My husband was the happiest guy on that beach and has definitely caught the surfing bug. Thank you HK for making his birthday a memorable one!

So I have to confess, I’ve been one of those users who constantly use Unilocal for everything but never take the time to write comments myself.
But after my experience with Kula Nalu, I had to create an account…
So I found them through Unilocal, of course, and had an A-​MAZING experience, from the sign up process to the end of my lesson.
Never surfed in my life, but to my surprise, I was standing immediately after my first go around with HK. Honestly, you wont find a better instructor than HK!
And that’s because he takes the time to go over all the education you need before getting into the water. And believe me, the ocean can swallow you whole if it wanted to.
HK is patient, down to earth, and really motivational. He truly loves what he does and it definitely shows.
I caught the surfing bug and have to say it’s heavily due to my wonderful first experience.
My lesson was for two hours but HK spent a total of 4 hours with me since he had extra time. Seriously, how great is that? I’ve already booked additional time. So look no further, if you’re interested in surfing, Kula Nalu Ocean Sports is it!

you know what they say about life.
no one’s getting out of here alive. so might as well hurl yourself, head first.
easy to say, hard philosophy to follow. most folks, as they get older– either become more set in their ways (fear, judgment, insecurity, anger), or set on becoming better (more laughter, more wine, more empathy).
but once in a while we get so caught up on social networks, jobs, ego, etc, that we need a little reminder. of how small we really, truly are. my remedy?
mother nature.
take any hard, fast talking, angeleno and drop them in the middle of an ocean. i’ll bet money at the end of the day, guy will have chilled the hell out.
now HK didn’t do that to me, thank god.
after years of debating, i finally booked a one on one surf lesson. having almost drowned a couple of times as a kid, i was a bit squirrley about going into the ocean. i mean, it’s the OCEAN. no clean chlorine sheen, no grumpy swimmers, just water and earth.
he was extremely patient with me, and did a very thorough prep work, going over safety tips, and overall basics of surfing at the shop. after that, we drove over to the water. we stayed in the white water, and he kept helping me go at it again and again, until i stood up (ish).
i have to say, actually being in a the water is a completely jarring experience. i wiped out about 13 times minimum (as HK told me «you WILL wipeout»), and after the 12^th time, i got used to the hammering of the ocean, and started to loosen up a bit. HK was extremely supportive, and damn, he’s probably the best motivational speaker i’ve ever come across. he explained that you have to believe that you’ll catch the wave, and make it your own. how can you NOT love the guy? or surfers in general.
if you’re a first time newbie like me, i highly suggest you do the one on one, you’ll be more comfortable and HK will take care of you. this is a fantastic family run business, and after i grow a pair, i think i’ll go try to the hit the waves again soon.
head first.