The Crew at Santa Barbara Surf School

Our experienced staff are truly outstanding people both in and out of the water.

Meet Our Expert Surf Instructors

We’re incredibly proud of our instructors. All of them are truly outstanding people both in and out of the water. When it comes to your surf lesson in Santa Barbara they make all the difference in the world and are sure to make it a memorable one! Take a little time and get to know our team!

Sean Tran

My name is Sean Tran, I am a graduate of UCSB. Being born and raised in California, board sports have been in my life for many years. I started out skateboarding as a young child, which then led me to my main passion, surfing. I have been surfing for about 10 years and am still obsessed with the sport till this day. Surfing has brought me many amazing opportunities in my life like making new friends, traveling, and appreciating our ocean/environment. Surfing has brought me to Indonesia, Nicaragua, Hawaii, Mexico, and many of the amazing waves on the coast of California. Through this experience, I have met many amazing people from different backgrounds and learned to appreciate the different cultures each country has to offer. Surfing has also taught me the importance of health and mental health because it improves both. Surfing is very therapeutic and keeps me very happy. There is no better feeling than catching and riding a wave and I am excited to share this experience with you!

Wyatt Hinge

Being born and raised in Northern California there were all sorts of things for me to discover and explore from a very young age! Whether I was up in the mountains snowboarding, hiking, and dirtbiking or on the opposite side enjoying the ocean! And what instantly pulled me in was my love for the ocean! I have done almost every activity that you could do in the ocean, surfing, boogie boarding, stand up paddling, free diving, foiling you name it I have done it. Growing up my dad worked for Ripcurl and he would pull me out of school to go down to Santa Cruz, San Francisco,and Halfmoon Bay to go surf while he worked and from there I realized my absolute passion for surfing! After about 10 years of surfing in northern california I finally realized it was time for me to head down to sunny Southern California! Being able to live and surf in Santa Barbara and pursue my college career at the same time has been the best last few years of my life! On top of all of this I get to share the stoke of surfing through teaching others! Nothing makes me happier than seeing people catch the first wave of their surfing career! I have now had a few years to explore pretty much every wave there is on the 805 coast and I have absolutely fallen in love with this place I now call home!

Ally James

My name is Ally James, and I have taught surf, SUP and kayak lessons at Cal Coast for four years! I was born and raised in Carpinteria where my dad taught me how to surf. I started surfing when I was about seven years old and as soon as I got my driver’s license I started traveling up and down the coast to surf, and have traveled to Hawaii to surf too! I have been a lifeguard for four years at surf camps and pools. I go to college in Santa Barbara and am studying Studio Art, and in my free time, I try to teach surf lessons as much as I can! My artwork is influenced a lot by the ocean and surf culture of Santa Barbara, the easy going and highly accepting community of surfers have allowed me to grow confidence as an athlete, artist, and has elevated my overall well-being. Surfing has been there for me when there were no other constants in my life and has forced me to seize the moments we are given, wave by wave. The ocean always leaves us wanting more, and watching people that I teach have this realization is so rewarding to me. I love to show other people how capable they are of surfing and how cathartic, rejuvenating, and rewarding it can be for them too!

Sofia Troya

Hi, I’m Sofia! I am a very passionate surfer and sustainability advocate. I absolutely love anything related to the outdoors and spend most of my free time outside. Adventure sports have always been a part of my life and I was raised doing just about everything. I grew up in San Diego and moved to Santa Barbara for college. Ever since I was young, the beach was a central part of my life and surfing was the primary way I spent time with my family and friends. I love surfing and find that I am most at peace when I paddle out. Teaching surf lessons is one way I am able to share my passion with the people around me.

Nathan Weber

Ever since I hopped on a surfboard for the first time 14 years ago I haven’t stopped pursuing my passion for riding waves and learning about the ocean. I have now spent over a thousand hours in the water teaching people to surf. Surfing has taken me to the other side of the world and back finding new waves and an appreciation for surf culture in different countries. I love surfing in its purest form, being overjoyed and the sensation of riding a wave, not what it’s typically stereotyped as a sport of too cool for school bros and babes. It’s not about how you look, how you talk, or what you wear. It’s about having fun and loving the ocean. My favorite moment as a surf instructor was watching a 55-year-old man from Switzerland with a lifelong dream of one day learning to surf catch his first wave, stand up, and then look back at me with the biggest smile I’d ever seen. Those are the moments as a surf instructor that I look forward to every time I get to teach a surf lesson.

Elias Jordan

I am a born and raised Central Coast local, and nothing will take me away. While growing up in the foothills of San Luis Obispo County, I was raised in the outdoors. I have done just about everything fun under the sun; BMX racing, skateboarding, dirt bike racing, tennis, snowboarding, and last but certainly not least, SURFING. The ocean has truly taken over my life over the past 10 years in such an incredible way. My dad introduced my entire family to the ocean at a very young age. Surfing the cooler waters in Morro Bay gave me a lot of appreciation for the more mild temperatures in Santa Barbara when I moved here in 2014 to obtain my Bachelors in Psychology from UCSB. Surfing has taken me from Lincoln City, Oregon to Sayulita, Mexico, and even Cloudbreak in Fiji. I have met incredibly diverse people through surfing around the world. If surfing has given me anything, it is the appreciation for other cultures and finding unity in the simple (but sometimes difficult) pleasure of riding a wave. After work and on my days off you will often find me hiking to the local hot springs, surfing with my friends, and often right back here at Cal Coast Adventures. This place has become a home away from home for me and being able to share paddleboarding, biking, and kayaking with my friends and family has given me so much joy over the past 4 years.

John Calforda

Brody Weiss

My name is Brody Weiss and I am a recent graduate from Westmont College, located here in Santa Barbara, California. I am originally from Denver, Colorado where I spent most of my free time hiking and snowboarding throughout the Rocky Mountains. Growing up, I was blessed to have a family beach vacation home in Sanibel Island Florida, that we would visit 5 to 6 times a year. It was through this beach house where my passion for the ocean started. At age 12, I took a family vacation to Costa Rica, where I took my first surf lesson and stood up on my first wave. It was from that point on where surfing became my deepest interest. Being from Colorado, I knew I wanted to get to the Coast of California where I could continue to grow my passion for surfing. It was then a dream come true as I received a scholarship to play baseball at the University of California Santa Barbara. I then moved out to Santa Barbara in 2011, and from that point on, surfing has become the biggest part of my life. For me, the ocean/surfing is the one thing that seems to keep my life in balance. For the time I’ve been out here, I have had the opportunity to travel up and down the coastline of California, surfing with friends and getting to experience all the adventures this state holds. The Ocean has so much to offer us, and it has become my passion teaching and sharing these amazing experiences with others in the water. I look forward to seeing you out there!

In Memory of Gregory Jon Lewis

Gregory Jon Lewis 1963-2013 founder of Santa Barbara Surf School. Thank you for your passion of surfing and your stellar instruction of teaching others the joy of catching a wave. You are missed and your legend lives on.