Esplanade Surf School becomes: HYDRO SURF SCHOOL
The new HYDRO Surf School. Photo supplied by ODT - Peter McIntosh
The Esplanade Surf School has now officially become the…
HYDRO Surf School
During the beginning of December 2025, HYDRO Surf Shop took ownership over of The Esplanade Surf School from Jason and Evie. Since then, Leroy Rust has been managing it with his fantastic team from HYDRO, earning themselves enormously positive feedback, whilst learning the ropes of a new business.
We began using a fairly universal Surf School program with a baseline of rentals, group classes and private classes running daily, which people readily book online and in-store at HYDRO Surf Shop. The first summer was very busy with many happy people coming through learning to surf. Although the weather was somewhat mild the surf was very favourable throughout most of the season.
Most exciting for us was a massive uptake from the local and regional schools; the kids love it, and for High Schools, we now offer NCEA assessments. Following the successful start, we hope to expand further into this space - stay tuned!
Surfing for Farmers - Kaka Point, South Otago.
Another major highlight for the team was getting behind Surfing for Farmers in Kaka Point, and Brighton Beach, Dunedin. Each Wednesday the HYDRO Surf School crew would head down to Kaka Point for the evening to run a large, fun focused surf lesson to all the regional farmers from South Otago. From 5 pm onward, between 40-60 farmers enjoyed making a weekly pilgrimage to the coast, leaving the paddocks and worries behind for an evening - A hard earned break we say! It’s so great to share the surfing fun with this laid back lot, and have some good yarns over a BBQ + drink afterwards too.
Surfing for Farmers Brighton, Dunedin.
The same was happening for Dunedin farmers at Brighton Beach, 5 pm every second Thursday night. We welcome all to come down and join the fun at either location, whichever works for you. Some farmers love it so much we’ve found they’re traveling to both. For this season ahead, we want to make it more family friendly, so that special someone isn’t stuck at home; everyone needs to get off the farm for a break. Bring your kids, we can cater to them too!
Weekend Warriors.
For the kids, we ran a very successful Weekend Warriors class, aimed at youth 16 years and younger. The sessions ran every second Saturday at 10am, and saw a large number of kids coming most weeks. These kids progressed a lot under the watchful tuition of our funnest instructors. The heavily discounted rate which we offer in the Weekend Warriors makes it a viable option for parents, and many reported back that when compared to other weekend activities that go to around town, it’s cheap, and the kids are learning valuable life long ocean skills. If we get the numbers up this season, we will aim to run an after school session every other week too - watch this space!
Women on Waves.
A major goal for the past season was to revive Women on Waves, which was a ladies only class that had run in previous years under the Esplanade Surf School, but unfortunately, we were under-resourced and didn’t have quite enough interest. IF this sounds like YOU, please do reach out! We are better resourced now and have a group of wonderful wahine instructors who are passionate to spread the love!
During November and December, we also get a lot of bookings for End of Year Functions, and Staff Parties etc. From Construction Companies to I.T Business’, everyone has a blast! Birthdays and Team Building + Outdoor Confidence bookings are popular too. So, if anything like this sounds appealing, or you have your own ideas, please reach out, we can customise the surfing experience to suit you!
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Looking forward to a great season ahead!
Thanks everyone from,
Leroy and the team @ HYDRO.
Leroy and the crew at the International Surfing Association, Surfing Instructors Course - Completion 2025