A small bay in south Lombok where the reef breaks slow, the water is warm year-round, and our founder Dihi has put 1,200+ first-time surfers on their feet — most of them on holiday, most of them nervous. If you don't stand in your first lesson, your second one is on us.
No surfing experience needed. Soft-top boards, knee-deep starts, calm water. We've never had a guest who didn't stand.
Gerupuk is a fishing village an hour east of Kuta. The bay has one trick: it forgives beginners. The reef is soft, the wave breaks slow, and the inside line is shoulder-deep at low tide. We've taught nine hundred and forty travellers here. Eleven needed a second lesson.
Every wave that's good for an experienced surfer is bad for a first-timer. Steep faces, fast walls, sharp reef, big drops — the things you'd Instagram are the things that put a beginner in hospital.
Gerupuk is the opposite. It's a horseshoe-shaped bay protected from the open ocean by a long outer reef. By the time a wave reaches the inside, where we teach, it has lost most of its energy and almost all of its hurry.
You stand up in waist-deep water on a soft-top board, on a wave that's been politely walking towards the beach for ninety seconds. Nobody is in your way. Nothing scrapes your feet.
Outer reefs absorb the open-ocean swell. By the time water reaches the beginner zone, the wave is moving roughly walking pace.
The wave breaks over reef but the inside section, where you'll fall off, is soft sand. No coral cuts on day one.
The bay works at high or low tide. You're never staring at flat water for four hours waiting for it to come in.
A single two-hour group lesson on the bay's gentlest reef. The simplest way to find out whether surfing is for you — without committing to a week.
Ten coaching sessions across one week — the package most first-time guests pick. Mid-week photo review, end-of-week video review, all the gear and the boat included. Find your own villa; we'll point you at a few good ones nearby.
Five world-class breaks ring the bay. Most are reachable only by boat. Bring a board — we bring the local lines, the skipper who's worked these reefs for thirty years, and lunch.
Surf in the morning, lunch with the family, hidden waterfall, finish at a sunset point. The Lombok the guidebook can't reach. Bespoke per group.
We message you the tide chart, the pickup time, what to wear, and what not to eat for breakfast (anything heavy). You go to bed knowing exactly what tomorrow looks like.
Driver collects you from your villa or hotel anywhere in Kuta or Selong Belanak. Twenty-minute ride. Coffee in the cup-holder.
Pop-up technique on dry sand. Foot placement, paddling, how to fall safely. Boards and rash vests fitted. We answer your nervous questions out loud.
Instructor in the water with you, hand on your board, calling the takeoff. Most guests stand within their first six attempts. You will fall. You won't get hurt.
We send you the photos by sundown. Fresh coconut on the beach. We'll ask if you want to come back tomorrow — most do.
I grew up two hundred metres from this bay. I learned to surf it on a borrowed board before I learned to read English. By seventeen I was teaching tourists; by twenty-five I'd built a school.
I built it because every traveller who came told me the same thing: they didn't want a stranger from a chain school. They wanted somebody who actually knew when the wind would shift, where the rip sat, which reef was kind that morning. They wanted a local.
If you've never surfed, you're exactly the person I built this for. Bring no equipment, no fitness regime, no expectations. Bring a swimsuit. I'll meet you on the sand.
I had written off ever surfing — too uncoordinated, too scared, too thirty-six. Dihi had me standing on lesson one. I cried a little on the beach. Came back twice that week.
Best money I spent in five months travelling Asia. The boat trips alone are worth the flight. The breakfast Dihi's mother cooks should be illegal.
I've taken lessons in Bali, Portugal and Costa Rica. This is the only place where I felt I was being taught, not babysat. Dihi corrected things no other instructor had spotted.
Still on the fence? WhatsApp Dihi directly. He answers in under an hour, in plain English, seven days a week.
You'll be in waist-to-chest deep water on a floating board, with your instructor an arm's length away. As long as you can stand and walk in chest-deep water without panicking, you'll be fine. Tell us beforehand and we'll keep you in even shallower water for the first thirty minutes.
You don't need to be fit. A first lesson is mostly catching waves on whitewater — short paddles, gravity does the work. Most of our guests are office workers on holiday, not athletes. The only common complaint after day one is sore ribs from leaning on the board, which is easily fixed.
The fear is rational and we take it seriously. The bay is sheltered, shallow on the inside, and your instructor is in the water with you — not coaching from the beach. You'll be told what to do every step. Most nervous guests describe lesson one as "much calmer than I expected."
Your second lesson is free, no paperwork. It happens to roughly one in a hundred guests. We don't make a fuss about it.
Surfable every month. Dry season (May–October) has cleaner conditions and bigger swell — better for week two onwards. Wet season (November–April) is gentler, often better for first-timers, and the bay is empty. Water is 27–29°C all year. No wetsuit needed.
Fly into Lombok International (LOP). We pick you up from anywhere in Kuta or Selong Belanak (20km away) and bring you to the beach. If you're staying in Bali, ferry plus our pickup is around four hours total — happy to plan it with you.
Bank transfer in EUR, USD, or IDR; card via Wise or Stripe; cash in IDR on the day. A 25% deposit holds your spot — refundable up to 14 days before your first lesson. The rest is due when you arrive.
We answer messages within an hour, in plain English. Most weeks book a month ahead — write us early, especially July, August, December and January. 25% deposit holds your spot. Rest payable on arrival.
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