Established: 5 years

Location: Mt Maunganui

Contact Name: Travis McCoy

Website: www.southpacificsurf.co.nz

Business mission and vision:
To deliver a unique experience for all levels of surfing and take them through a dynamic process where they become familiar with the ocean and reach new levels of confidence in the waves.

“Surf Lessons and coaching, guided surf trips, board hire and repair”

My surfing experience throughout my life, which started here at Mount Maunganui when I was 10 years old has taken me all around the world. Surfing waves from 2 foot to towing waves at 20ft on the rugged west coast of Ireland. This has taught me how to deal with extremely dangerous situations in the water and how to negotiate yourself through these which I pass on to the students, water safety is a high priority here at South Pacific Surf. I have invested my life into reading and understanding advanced weather maps and swell forecasts so we always have the best knowledge on choosing when and where to surf.

Due to the fact we are young and up and coming business I have never been offered the opportunity, so hopefully this will be our first award.

I started South Pacific because of my deep burning passion for surfing and the love for the ocean. I want to share this passion with as many people as I can through teaching them the art of sharing and understanding the ocean in her many moods. Also the fact it’s a seasonal business and gives me the opportunity to chase swells all around the world for a few months getting my fix and enhancing my skills so that i can then bring them home to pass on for the kiwi summer ahead.

After returning home from overseas after a 2 year journey from the likes of Mexico, Ireland, and Indonesia where I was working as a surf coach and guide, I decided to use this amazing knowledge I had gained and invested it all in an idea I had been thinking of for a long time. My biggest fear of starting South Pacific was the fear of failing, but I backed myself and took the leap of faith. Also the fact that there were already three other surf schools operating made my entry into the market challenging, but my unique edge gave me the confidence.

When starting out I was on a shoestring budget where I invested my small amount of savings into buying all the boards and wetsuits I needed. I had to employ other instructors to help in the busy times, this meant some big financial sacrifices to keep the business floating while we were growing. Often not paying myself to pay staff, I lived at home with mum and dad in the early stages which meant I could survive, as the business grew cash flow improved and it became self sufficient to the stage it is today.

In the first 4 years of business all the surf schools worked together and cooperated and life was harmonious, unfortunately an outside surf school moved into the Mount and caused friction between the schools and the council. Due to their actions we lost our rights to use certain beaches that we had been using for the last 4 years and isolated us to one spot only on the open coast line which is often dangerous and unusable. It took away our unique aspect of our mobility and choosing the best spot on the day and teaching our students the new mechanics of all the different spots along the coast. It disrupted our xmas trading and staff hours to the point we barely operated for a month and we found it highly stressful. After a successful meeting with the city council they realised the new rules were unworkable and reversed the regulations back to how they were previously, thankfully we haven’t any problems and things are great.

Over the past two years we have created an educational NCEA program with high schools in the area and outside of the Bay Of Plenty, where we teach ocean knowledge and safety as well as practical surfing. We have been running a special program with Te Puke high over the past 2 years also where they bring there “Special needs” students to us and we have a weekly surf program, this was recently run in the paper in a article on the success of the program and what it means to students having the opportunity to surf. A new edition to South Pacific we started an international surf and yoga retreat on the west coast of Bali, which was a great success.

Making so many special connections with our local community and watching people’s lives transform through involvement in the ocean and learning how to surf.

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We offer to send all our staff through development courses with surfing New Zealand, whether its their introductory level one course after which we provide the training hours needed to get qualified. We provide job experience for young kids at high school that want to become surf instructors and get involved in the surf industry through them shadowing our most experienced instructors.

We are proud of the fact that we are the most highly rated surf school in the Bay Of Plenty on google reviews, with 165 reviews all at 5 stars. The only school to have a perfect score alongside many amazing comments on our interactions with the students.
I have pasted one of the many amazing reviews below that we are very proud of.
” Thank you so much South Pacific Team! You guys are truly the best! Mind Changing and epic sessions for my whole family. Appreciating all the effort and flexibility you put into teaching my four kids and the two of us. Looking forward to continuing our surfing journey with you guys. Surfing with South Pacific puts always a smile on your face🔥🙏😊Vera, Veit, Coco, Taimi, Paia and Quinn “

What I love about being the owner of South Pacific Surf is the fact that people come to you as first time clients and then at the end of the sessions you have made a friend.

We sponsor Mount Maunganui Primary school annually to help provide support to the kids of our local community, also we have given our gear to charities in fundraising events free of charge.

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