Why I started VBSC:

As someone who surfed for over 2 decades, I saw the lineups getting more and more crowded with people who lacked skills, awareness, and etiquette causing them to not only unwittingly be a danger to others but themselves. I saw people doing techniques that were obvious to me as a long time surfer would not work unless in very particular conditions. Many of these people clearly wanted to get decent at surfing but were so far down the wrong track it would be years of toil before they ever figured it out.  In 2018, I started working at a surf school and soon found out why; the level of instruction and values of many other surf schools were so misaligned with the reality in the water. The priorities were mostly tied to marketing and money, ownership didn’t surf themselves, didn’t care about its customers, and the end product showed this. I tried while working there to change a lot of this, but after a year I realized I wouldn’t ever be able to run a decent program working for someone else. So I quit, and the same day I started Venice Beach Surf Club.

Our story since then:

By the time everything got squared away with permits, equipment and business it was early 2020. Despite difficult times, out of the pandemic we grew to become one of the most well-regarded surf schools in Los Angeles. We built a program from the ground up designed to help our students get to the intermediate levels of surfing much faster, and creating sustainable habits that are useful through a lifetime of surfing. We have more regular customers than any other school in Los Angeles and that’s because we teach real technique that really works which helps our students progress much faster than our competitors. This isn’t a business purely about making money but rather one built on passion to bring people into lineups with solid etiquette, skills, and ocean awareness. We also rigorously train our employees so there is no drop-off in instruction level. We are permitted with Los Angeles County, insured, and have a stellar safety record as well. 

We look forward to sharing the water with you.

- Will Adams

Owner/Operator/Surfer