Hubby and I are, let's just say, not natural surfers, nor very good swimmers, but we try really,…read morereally hard. As in we have had a couple dozens of lessons across Hawaii, Southern California, Costa Rica, and now Australia. We've tried going out on our own with friends to a new spot before, and nearly drowned. So since then, we've decided to always get a lesson first in an unfamiliar beach to get some local insight, and, well, try not to die, plus maybe just get a tiny bit better at catching a few waves.
We got 10 students to 2 instructors, not a bad ratio for a group lesson. Lenny and Fred were super laid back and friendly. It was 2 hour lesson, but we spent over half an hour of it just stretching and doing introductions. For another half an hour, we learned about how the waves are formed, the areas to avoid, where the riptides are, etc. All important information, don't get me wrong. Just know that 1 hour of active time is more than enough for most beginners. Our instructors were great at pushing us into the waves at the right time. Every time they gave me a push, I popped up with no problem. When I tried on my own, it was more failure than success. They gave me only a couple pointers as to what I could do to improve, but understandably they were busy with everyone else. I believe every single student had a good pop up by the end of the class.
The only thing I was disappointed about was that we stuck to white water only and did not go to the line up for some green waves. However, we came back the next day on our own and rented boards from here at a very reasonable price (A$70 with wetsuit for 2 hours per person), carried it over to the beach, and I actually paddled out and got a great session in! At home, we still use foam boards, and there are signs everywhere on the beach that said foam boards only, I guess for safety reasons? Intermediate to pro surfers, I'm not sure if you'd get the same enjoyment out of Bondi, but maybe try Manly instead.
