Torpedo7 and Daniel Kereopa’s Surf School have been in partnership for a year – providing kids, teens and adults with the opportunity to experience the DK ocean life in a fun and easy way. There’s a lot of hype about their teaching style and we thought it was about time we put the feedback to the test and try it out for ourselves.

For a “See You Out There” Company, it’s funny to say that only one of the eight staff in the marketing team knew how to surf. For the remainder seven… Well, we had hyped ourselves up for failure, a good laugh and expected the worse going into the fast, roaring waves and the forever changing currents of Ngarunui, Raglan’s main surf beach. Water can be an amazing thing, but at the same time it can bring out the fear of no control when you’re fresh to a new sport.

Sandy surfboards – practising stance and core control.

After dancing into our wetsuits and carrying the surfboards down a steep hill, Renee and Daniel went straight to work. Gathering in a circle, we mapped out our own surfboards in the sand and went through some basic tips and techniques to get us up and going. Sounds easy right? Yes, it was! With the use of 9ft mini-mal soft top surfboards and the expertise of some of the coolest people in the industry, learning to surf became achievable. As DK says, “function over fashion. Fashion can be what you wear, but the function is the surfboard that you choose to get yourself up and riding”. True to his words, we were on our feet within a few tries.

It was a lot of fun and all our worries seemed to have disappeared. Their style of teaching is amazing! I myself have studied textbook surfing on youtube and to be honest, it wasn’t my cup of tea – it didn’t work. The crew will push your board for momentum and won’t take their eyes off you. You get off the surfboard, practice a little bit more while you wait your turn, and then they’ll give you tips that relate to your style, mobility, and capability. It didn’t matter that we were a big group, you always felt like the lesson was tailored to you. We also found it rewarding, like we had achieved something as a team and motivated each other to the take the next wave.  For us, it was a great team building exercise, but it’s easily a great family activity, fun for the young ones and also teaches us more about ourselves and the great outdoors.

If every summer you say “we should learn how to surf”, and don’t. You should. If you’ve tried your mates awesome looking short board and hated it. Of course, you did. Get yourself out into the big wide ocean, learn a skill, release bad vibes and cleanse your soul with the help of DK Surf School. From our personal experience, we loved it and found it totally addictive. Watch out Raglan, we’ll See You Out There.

Finding our feet

The only experienced surfer in our marketing team! Total beginner right?

Whoops! How did this get here? Big shout out to the Raglan Surf Life Saving Club. Who rolls their ankle walking into shore?