We’re not going to lie – being a surf instructor is a pretty freaking epic job. You spend your days on the beach, your evening sipping cold beer watching the sunset and you’re lifestyle is one full of stoke!
We know because many of our team have surf coached all over the globe. In fact it’s how we sourced most of our surf experiences – we’ve either worked for them as coaches, run their surf instructor training courses or helped create their surf experiences.
When it comes to life in the waves we kinda know what we’re doing!
So how do you become a surf instructor and turn the beach into your office? Well here’s a few handy tips on heading out to live the dream…
Learn To Surf
Well this is a pretty obvious start hey?! If you already have a good standard of surfing gaining your surf instructor qualification isn’t as hard as you might think.
To pass your Level 1 you need to be able to safely negotiate yourself into the lineup, ride left, ride right and do some basic off the top turns before kicking out in a controlled manner.
Once you’ve got that down you can get stuck into the qualification where you will learn a variety of teaching methods, health and safety and also gain your surf lifesaving qualification.
If this is where your skills stand our Moroccoand Portugal surf instructor coursesare the perfect place to combine sunshine and this week of leaning – or you can go a bit further and jump into the final few weeks of our South Africa Surf Adventure to get certified in Durban.
Go Zero To Hero
Ok so you’ve had a few surf lessons and you’re frothing on the stoke. You look at your surf instructor and think “damn that lifestyle is epic…I’m ditching my office for the beach” – well happy days!
If this is the case getting stuck into one of our zero to hero surf instructor courses is the way forward!
Over 3 months you’ll clock up some serious ocean time, improving your skills heaps and becoming a confident and competent surfer before tackling your certification.
With courses in Morocco, Portugal, South Africaand Australiayou’re spoilt for choice for destination too, although personally our favourite is the South Africa Surf Adventureas it combines world class surf and expert tuition with an epic road trip from Cape Town to Durban…giving you the best value for money.
Get Some Work Experience
With your certification all done and dusted you’re nearly there! First though you need to smash out some work experience and get your work experience hours all signed off.
This basically involves being an intern, shadowing a certified surf school and putting what you’ve learnt into practice.
With our network of contacts across the globe this isn’t hard to get sorted and there’s literally thousands of surf schools who’ll be happy to help. It’s also the first opportunity you’ll have to start networking in the surf industry which is invaluable.
Get On The Job Hunt
Boom you’re all certified, hours signed off and you’re ready to get cracking on your first surf instructor job!
Happy days indeed!
Now if you’ve really proven yourself you might be lucky enough to land a job where you did your hours, which is the easiest way to get started!
If they can’t accommodate you or your fancy heading somewhere new that’s no worries though – you already know a heap of instructors and picking their brains for places to work and contacts is going to be the way forward as a personal recommendation goes a long way in the surf industry.
Tidy up your CV and tailor your cover letter to surfing – like where you’ve been and how stoked you are – and try and get together some footage or photos of your surf skills, even some simply GoPro shots are a great addition to your application.
Remember surf coaching and surf camp work is as much about customer service as it is surfing so even your job at the supermarket, cafe or travel experience will be worth a mention.
Sites likes SurfInstructorJobs.compost an array of the latest surf camp vacancies across the globe so check them out online or join some Facebook groups to keep in the loop.
Theres also no harm in googling surf camps in locations you want to visit too and pinging them an email – the worst that can happen is they say no so what are you waiting for!?
When it comes to working as a surf coach you’re not going to become a millionaire – but what we can tell you is that it’ll be one of the most fun a rewarding jobs you’ll ever do…so get ready to top up that tan!
