Urban Surf

This is a review for the kite school, not the shopFirst thing is first, I'm a new [redacted]  survivorI let the school know that it was my dream to learn how to kite boardI signed up for the season passDue to weather (and the fact that they overbooked people) I couldn't get a first lesson until June (I signed up in May) June passed us by because for every weekend date I had set, the weather wasn't cooperating - fair enoughBut, when I finally had my first lesson, they paired me with an instructor who was "new" "had never taught at the school" "was unfamiliar with the harness" I was using At first, we just didn't seem to hit it off, and that was fineHe wasn't super encouraging, he seemed to be annoyed that I had literally no experience, and wasn't the most patient human being when I made a mistake"How did you do this? I don't even understand how you did this?!" He exclaimed when I didn't string the kite up right, it was only my second time after allHe would sternly correct me for the strangest things, like pumping the kite with my sandals on, told me that I had put on sun tan lotion wrong (with the palm of my hands) The first time we went into the water, he reminded me that I had forgotten some gear, thing is, he never told me what gear to bring outAnd lastly, he would go out for -minute riding sessions on my dime without much of an explanationI would talk to a friend on the beach, see him waving me to come in the water minutes later, and then yell at me saying, "I've been waiting for you while you've been talking on the beach!" I exclaimed, "Dude, I've been waiting for you to teach me while you've been out here riding and doing whatever it is that you're doing" On our second day, I had asked Jeffro (head of the school) early in the morning that maybe it would be best if I had a different instructorHe said to just give it a go today and we'll see how it goes after I got into the water and while the kite was on me, my harness flipped up stabbing me in the stomachThat's when the instructor told me he had "never used the harness before" He jabbed it into my stomach more as he was trying to get the kite off of me in frustrationIt felt like something had literally cut into meWhen he finally got the kite off, he first said to go to shore and get the harness fixed, and then 180ed seconds later and said stay here as he went on another minute joyride with the kiteAt that point, I had had itI went to shore in wretched pain, trying to find a competent instructor to get the harness off of meI was hunched over, I could barely walk It was then Jeffro approachedI told him what happened, the instructor came back to shore eventually and talked to him as wellThat's when Jeffro came over with the harness, at this point, the safety mechanism was brokenWhat was odd about this is I didn't remember that it wasn't broken when I took it offEither way, he seemed more irked by his harness being broken than he did about my well beingI could tell he wasn't very empathetic, my friends could too At this point, after days of this, I was weary about getting back into the water with this instructor, but I was determined to get up on that boardThe rest of the day went about as bad as it had been the day before, I was definitely done working with this manHe would yell at me when I got things wrong, etcI definitely wasn't getting this and I felt, as well as my friends who were with me, it was because I didn't have an adequate instructorFast forward to the next dayI email Jeffro asking again to get a different instructor Now here's the thing, when you pay $to a school up front, I expect to not have to wait hours to get a replyThat was my first red flag, it happened a lotHe writes me back and says that he is going to refund me the remaining money and is going to take me off the season pass due to the events of this weekendI ask him why? My future lessons will be more expensive, and he literally writes: "The behavior myself and others observed you display on the beach in attempt to address the issues with equipment, instructor and a seemly a sever injury from a commonly performed small action of switching the kite has caused our business to be concerned with the liability of working with you to learn an extreme sport in a extremely dynamic environmentThis raises our concern in your ability to manage the intense physical requirements associated with this sport, as it often can put extreme stressors on the body." The behavior that I displayed? I was hurt because your instructor didn't do a gear checkHe was an awful instructor! And physical requirements? [redacted] ! You want to talk to me about physical and mental requirements? The man literally insulted me and blamed me! It was incredible, couldn't believe itSo, I told him we were doneI got some of my money refunded, never with them again

This is a review for the kite school, not the shopFirst thing is first, I'm a new *** survivorI let the school know that it was my dream to learn how to kite boardI signed up for the season passDue to weather (and the fact that they overbooked people) I couldn't get a first lesson until June (I signed up in May) June passed us by because for every weekend date I had set, the weather wasn't cooperating - fair enoughBut, when I finally had my first lesson, they paired me with an instructor who was "new" "had never taught at the school" "was unfamiliar with the harness" I was using
At first, we just didn't seem to hit it off, and that was fineHe wasn't super encouraging, he seemed to be annoyed that I had literally no experience, and wasn't the most patient human being when I made a mistake"How did you do this? I don't even understand how you did this?!" He exclaimed when I didn't string the kite up right, it was only my second time after allHe would sternly correct me for the strangest things, like pumping the kite with my sandals on, told me that I had put on sun tan lotion wrong (with the palm of my hands) The first time we went into the water, he reminded me that I had forgotten some gear, thing is, he never told me what gear to bring outAnd lastly, he would go out for -minute riding sessions on my dime without much of an explanationI would talk to a friend on the beach, see him waving me to come in the water minutes later, and then yell at me saying, "I've been waiting for you while you've been talking on the beach!" I exclaimed, "Dude, I've been waiting for you to teach me while you've been out here riding and doing whatever it is that you're doing"
On our second day, I had asked Jeffro (head of the school) early in the morning that maybe it would be best if I had a different instructorHe said to just give it a go today and we'll see how it goes after
I got into the water and while the kite was on me, my harness flipped up stabbing me in the stomachThat's when the instructor told me he had "never used the harness before" He jabbed it into my stomach more as he was trying to get the kite off of me in frustrationIt felt like something had literally cut into meWhen he finally got the kite off, he first said to go to shore and get the harness fixed, and then 180ed seconds later and said stay here as he went on another minute joyride with the kiteAt that point, I had had itI went to shore in wretched pain, trying to find a competent instructor to get the harness off of meI was hunched over, I could barely walk
It was then Jeffro approachedI told him what happened, the instructor came back to shore eventually and talked to him as wellThat's when Jeffro came over with the harness, at this point, the safety mechanism was brokenWhat was odd about this is I didn't remember that it wasn't broken when I took it offEither way, he seemed more irked by his harness being broken than he did about my well beingI could tell he wasn't very empathetic, my friends could too
At this point, after days of this, I was weary about getting back into the water with this instructor, but I was determined to get up on that boardThe rest of the day went about as bad as it had been the day before, I was definitely done working with this manHe would yell at me when I got things wrong, etcI definitely wasn't getting this and I felt, as well as my friends who were with me, it was because I didn't have an adequate instructorFast forward to the next dayI email Jeffro asking again to get a different instructor
Now here's the thing, when you pay $to a school up front, I expect to not have to wait hours to get a replyThat was my first red flag, it happened a lotHe writes me back and says that he is going to refund me the remaining money and is going to take me off the season pass due to the events of this weekendI ask him why? My future lessons will be more expensive, and he literally writes: "The behavior myself and others observed you display on the beach in attempt to address the issues with equipment, instructor and a seemly a sever injury from a commonly performed small action of switching the kite has caused our business to be concerned with the liability of working with you to learn an extreme sport in a extremely dynamic environmentThis raises our concern in your ability to manage the intense physical requirements associated with this sport, as it often can put extreme stressors on the body."
The behavior that I displayed? I was hurt because your instructor didn't do a gear checkHe was an awful instructor! And physical requirements? * *** *** *** *** ***! You want to talk to me about physical and mental requirements? The man literally insulted me and blamed me! It was incredible, couldn't believe itSo, I told him we were doneI got some of my money refunded, never with them again