Maui Wave Riders

$ 65 for a 2h group lesson of 5 which nearly guarantees that you’ll be standing and catching a wave. Instruction was basic but solid and they delivered on their promise. You can keep the equipment the whole day to practice your new skills. Awesome photographer captures your day for an extra fee.

Our family of 4 just had a great morning learning to surf with Ina. I (mom) am not at all athletic or coordinated and I surfed my first wave and every one after! Kids (ages 9 & 11) had a great time and can’t wait to surf some more. They let you use the gear all afternoon, so we’re having a snack and heading back out! Request Ina and tip him well! I can definitely see how a blah instructor would make the experience less fun.

Surfing lessons for my wife’s birthday and Kekoa was awesome! He was very thorough, friendly, professional with lots of positive encouragement. We had an A+ experience. I highly recommend Maui Wave Riders and Kekoa especially. Aloha.

Awesome and very helpful staff! very lenient with time and teaching. One of the highlights of my trip definitely. They always made sure we were having a great time. not too pricey as well

Place was awesome. the nicest of people that work here. Met Ina, that dude is super cool and nice. You walk in and instantly get treated like a friend or family. Thanks guys!

Maui Wave Rider made learning to surf an unforgettable experience. Ina is the best instructor ever and extremely personable and funny. If you are in Maui and want to learn how to surf or Stand Up Paddle board go to Maui Wave Rider and ask for Ina as your instructor. They are well organized, have great customer service and you get a free hat after surfing.
Shout out to Ina– Check out
for awesome surf gear!

I totally loved my entire experience with this place. We were in Maui for 8 days and I did some research and asked around for surfing/​SUP classes. After reading reviews of this place, we came here to get the prices so got hooked, decided to go with them, and now, Im so happy we did so.
STAFF: super friendly, polite, and super helpful. The owners are such beautiful people. I had a problem with my car and the owners went a hundred extra miles to help me out. The owners are genuine and wonderful. My instructor Sole was a wonderful strong and encouraging woman who made me believe I can ride waves and I cant believe how well I did it. She broke it down to baby steps and as a beginner, I was pretty comfortable doing it.
Service: they gave us shoes and shirts to wear, hey have a gr8 photographer and give u all the pics on cd only for 25 per person. All the equipment are great and new.
Price: they offer the best price. Dont hesitate about that.
Overall, im very thankful to the owners, Alissa and Tom, and the staff for the amazing experience I had, and I’ll definitely go back to this song place when I’m back in Maui! Mahaloooo

Went for a surfing lesson — yup, we surfed and enjoyed ourselves — we were up on the board surfing within our first couple of tries. Not very friendly check-​in staff and our instructor was just okay — not much personality and seemed bored with his job. We’re on vacation, so prefer to be around happy and fun people.
Also, there was no photographer and of course we would have loved a photo of us surfing.

I took a surf lesson with Al at the Kihei location and it was incredible! He is a great teacher– very patient and encouraging. Even strangers in the water were telling me I had the best teacher and I agree. I thought it’d be a miracle if I could stand in the board without falling. With Al’s instructions I was doing that in less than 10 minutes. Since you get to keep the board and gear for the rest of the day I went back out after the lesson and since Al was out in the water too he gave me more tips.
I met another teacher, Sol, at the shop and she was very nice as well. Everyone at Maui Wave Riders is wonderful. I’ve been coming to Maui for 21 years and this is the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Definitely check them out when you’re in Kihei (or Lahaina).

Approached the business early to make sure I was at the right location. The young man who looked like a local, thin with dark hair, tan and green eyes was rude and acted as if I was a bother to him and my few questions were not important. I asked about whether I should where board shorts or not. He recommended I do to avoid chafing. Since I did not have any with me I expected he would guide me with locating a place to buy some, but as soon as another customer approached the counter, he dismissed me even though I may have had more questions. I decided to kill time next door at the surf shop I was able to find. Once the lesson began, the instructor was very friendly and helpful. Once I felt comfortable on the board riding the smaller waves, I wanted to step it up. Really wish they had the option to transfer extra hours of surf to another business location– Lahaina! Too tired to stay even after lunch and my schedule didn’t allow the flexibility to come back. Once returning the boards, the big lady with long sun bleach hair was rude and unwelcoming and gave me attitude when I asked for the bathroom key. Wish they provided towels to dry off and changing rooms! Price was lower than other places. Still made it fun on my own getting stoked riding the waves.

Amazingly friendly, helpful. Highly recommend… We went to 2 other places on the island… no one treated us as good as these guys… they said if we went over the time a little it was ok;)

What an awesome experience. We loved our instructor Kekoa. My husband was a natural but I took a lot more tries. He was so patient. If we ever take lessons again we will come here and we recommend Kekoa although all their instructors seem cool.

My wife and I did a one hour one on one with Kai and Brandon while on our honeymoon trip. It was 145 a person plus 50 bucks for our pictures on a usb. Worth every dime. We spent 1.5 hours and actually learned how to surf and do a few tricks like a 180 jump and backwards riding. Both guys were great and we were really pleased with everything. A must do when in Maui!

My wife and I had the best time learning to surf with Maui Wave Riders. Big thanks to Al for the absolute best group surf lesson ever. He was fun, funny and put everyone at ease out in the water. Ian took some awesome photos out in the water and have some encouragement and tips while we were in the water too.
We all caught waves at the beach right across the street from their store. Most of us were standing up and catching a ride on the first wave we caught. We could not have asked for a better experience. My wife had a lesson on Oahu and she said this one blew them out of the water. She learned so much more with this experience.
Thanks again to Al, Ian and the Maui Wave Riders crew. We will be back for sure.

The instructors here are wonderful. I’ve had lessons here twice and highly recommend choosing Maui Wave Riders. Extra shout out to our instructor, Brandon, who not only taught us how to surf but gave us great tips on some places to go. Thank you!

Rented a surf board and a single kayak :) Friendly staff, took credit card, and had booties to borrow. It’s a block off the beach.

We paid $ 55 for a group surf lesson for our 10yr old and was under the impression she was going to get grouped with other kiddos. Not so! There were three others in her group (two young women in their 20s and a man in his 50s). My daughter was a bit uncomfortable at first but there was nothing we could do about it. Four students ended up going out with the instructor, Ula, for a 2 hour lesson.
The lesson came with two hours of dry land and sea instruction. It also included water shoes, rash guard and surfboard and you get access to these items until 3pm as a part of what you pay for.
Ula did a good job going over safety and stressed that the students should utilize his pushes (one of his pushes was equivalent to 10 – 15 paddles) for the two hours they had him.
The waves were kind of small and wimpy looking but I could see how exhausting it was to try and paddle and Ula did a wonderful job pushing (and timing). We ended up spending the lesson cheering our butts off and our daughter caught a wave on her first try and dozens more after that! :)
They had a photog taking pics and we ended up buying the cd for $ 25 afterwards. It had 28 pics total and only 2 were NOT of our kiddo. So it came out to about a buck a pic and that wasn’t too bad of a deal.
The place was packed with tourists but we are pretty tourist-​y and thought the experience fun/​useful overall and would recommend!

Having booked a snorkel trip later in the week we thought we’d take my mother-​in-​law to the beach by the condo so she could get used to her rented equipment. But we were advised the surf was really too rough for that (which I could see it was). They suggested instead a surfing class. The rough surf was perfect for that. Good idea!
This was the second time daughter and I had done a lesson (first was a few years ago). The site MWR uses for their lessons is much better. Water is deeper (about 3′) and the bottom mostly sandy. That was probably the big difference between MWR and Goofy Foot. There was some land instruction, and then we grab the boards and head to the water. Seemed to me we got more time in the water today than with Goofy Foot also.
Overall a good lesson. If we come back I might want to get a private lesson to take our «skills» [cough] to the next level. Another beginning class would probably not help us much.
I would recommend this place to anyone interested in catching some waves for fun, or those who may want to take this up as a real hobby.

This place was awesome! My brother sister and myself all went for a group lesson. When we first got there the reception was welcoming and we felt like family the whole time.
The service and lesson are unbeatable for the price, end of story.

My 7 year old daughter and I were able to have a semi private lesson with Ina. He is amazing!!! My daughter had a blast and rode a bunch of waves in. Most importantly, Ina made surfing fun for her and she can’t wait to get back on a board.
The photographer took great photos and captured he smile on the surf. priceless.