Learn Windsurfing & Wing-foil in Santa Monica / Southern California

Honest level: Beginner -> Intermediate — ask the school exactly how far that goes in the time you have.

Masters & lineage

• Jim Drake & Hoyle Schweitzer (founding lineage)

The credential

VDWS Windsurf / Wingfoil Licence & Instructor Certification · Certifying body: VDWS / IWO (International Windsurfing & Wingfoiling Organisation)

A recognised qualification an outside body stands behind is not the same as a certificate a school prints itself. We name which it is — you should ask the school the same.

Also for Windsurfing & Wing-foil

What I check before I send you anywhere

I'm Arnaud. I cook for a living, and I've spent fifteen years on the water — so I know the difference between a real school and a good-looking website. I built the Atlas because I got tired of the second kind. Here is what a place has to clear before it goes on here, and what I'll tell you straight when it doesn't.

• The craft is actually alive there. A working scene, with people who do this every day — not a demo put on for visitors.
• There's a real teacher behind it. Named, still practising, and certified where the craft has certificates.
• The credential is what it claims to be. A state diploma and a certificate a school prints itself are not the same thing. I check which, and I say which.
• I tell you how sure I am. Most pages here are verified by hand. A few say "still checking" — I'd rather admit that than pretend.
• Nobody pays to be here. No commission, no selling the trip. The order on this map is the strength of the community, never the size of the wallet.
• If I wouldn't send a friend, it isn't on the map.