Designed for surfers who want to stop outsourcing decisions in the ocean and start making their own
This work is for surfers who have put in the time, the effort, and the commitment, yet still feel like something essential was never properly explained.
For some, that shows up as dependence. Being pushed into waves. Being escorted through the lineup. Feeling capable only when a coach or guide is nearby, and uncertain the moment they are alone. Surfing works, but only under supervision.
For others, it shows up as frustration with technique. The body is fit. The desire is there. Yet timing feels inconsistent, positioning feels reactive, and waves are rushed rather than used. Progress happens in bursts, never in a way that feels repeatable or reliable.
And for many, there is a quieter recognition.
A sense that early learning skipped steps. That foundations were rushed. That whitewater, impact zone navigation, wave selection, and decision-making were bypassed in favor of standing up quickly and moving on.
The result is years of effort built on incomplete understanding.
Private coaching allows me to identify exactly where that break occurred in your learning, whether you are early in your journey or decades into it, and rebuild it properly so surfing finally becomes intelligible, independent, and yours.
This is not a retreat.
It is not a surf camp.
And it is not a guided holiday where someone pushes you into waves and hopes something sticks.
This is a fully immersive, one on one coaching experience where every session, every conversation, and every decision is built around how you interact with the ocean.
Over the last 18 years, I have coached more than 8,000 surfers across reef breaks, point breaks, beach breaks, and wave pools. I have spent 44 years in the water myself. Because of that, I see patterns and problems others miss long before they become obstacles.
Apply now to check availability for private coaching
AS FEATURED IN
8,000+ clients coached
One week equals six months of standard progress
Most of the surfers who book private coaching are not lacking motivation, intelligence, or ambition.
They are constrained by time.
Some live near the ocean but only manage infrequent sessions around work, family, and daily responsibilities. Others rely on wave pools to keep some form of practice alive while waiting for their next surf window. Many only get into the ocean occasionally, even if they live close to it. In every case, the problem is the same: when surf time is limited, inefficient learning becomes expensive.
For surfers who only get a handful of meaningful sessions each year, progress happens in fragments. Each session often starts behind where the last one ended. Time is spent re-adjusting and working things out again instead of building forward. Technique may improve in controlled settings like a wave pool, but progress in the ocean remains inconsistent.
The result is progress that exists, but costs far more time than it should.
Over time, that inconsistency becomes dependence. You hesitate without a coach nearby. You wait for instructions instead of making decisions. You avoid certain conditions, lineups, or breaks, not because they are necessarily beyond your ability, but because you don’t fully trust yourself.
Private coaching changes this by shortening the distance between mistake and understanding.
Time Is Your Most Valuable Asset in Surfing
Collapsing the Learning Curve
Instead of spending months or years discovering the same problems repeatedly, you get immediate clarity on what is actually holding you back. I watch how you move through the water, how you paddle; I analyse your technique, and how you react when something doesn’t go as expected.
From there, we work on the decisions or habits that are limiting progress, not just the symptoms that show up.
This is how limited surf time turns into real progress.
Not by surfing more, but by learning in a way that carries forward instead of resetting each time.
Meet Your Coach
Andrew Goodman
I have been surfing for 44 years and coaching for 18 years.
I have worked with beginners, intermediates, advanced surfers, professionals, and people who were told they were “just not natural surfers.”
More than 8,000 clients later, I have yet to encounter a problem I couldn’t diagnose and solve. Nothing about surfing surprises me anymore.
At the core of my coaching is a simple principle: the goal is not to make you reliant on me. The goal is to make you independent in the ocean.
That focus on independence is precisely why so many clients return.
Not because they need me, but because they understand the value of refining that independence further.
Many of the people I coach are professionals and experts in their own fields. They value education, and they understand that proper education + action (practice) = measurable progress.
The Coaching Method That Makes Progress Stick
Most surf instruction focuses on what to do.
My work focuses on explaining the why behind the what.
Learning to surf as an adult comes with baggage. Not in a negative sense, but in a real one. Adults carry habits, partial understanding, fear responses, and often years of instruction that was never properly integrated.
Repeating movements on top of that doesn’t automatically lead to progress. In many cases, it simply reinforces what’s already there.
This is why people can surf for years and make very little progress.
Practice doesn’t make perfect, practice only makes permanent.
When the brain understands why something works or doesn’t, you improve faster, and what you learn sticks.
Over the years, I’ve developed a coaching method that helps people absorb new information in a way that integrates naturally and becomes almost automatic in the water.
This is why progress continues long after the coaching ends. Much of what is learned is absorbed at a subconscious level. Clients regularly tell me that months or years later, they still hear my voice in the water.
That is not motivation. That is learning that has been properly encoded.
My Coaching Framework
and why my clients progress faster
My system integrates five proprietary methods developed for adult surfers who value precision, safety, and lasting progress.
1. The Wave Language Method™
Transforms ocean observation into a readable system. You'll know what the waves are doing, where to position, and why-so you stop guessing and start anticipating.
2. The Physics-First Coaching Method
Based on biomechanics and hydrodynamics, this approach teaches movement that conserves energy and accelerates retention.
3. The Body-Led Customization Method
Adapts your surf technique to your specific body, age, and mobility. No forced formulas-just movement that fits you.
4. The Video Analysis Feedback Loop
Daily recorded sessions reviewed in real time. Within five days, you'll see measurable improvements equivalent to three months of generic instruction.
5. The Beginner Surf License Approach
A structured framework for ocean literacy-so you leave knowing how to assess conditions, identify safe zones, and surf independently.
These five systems lock together like gears: body, physics, awareness, repetition, confidence.
They turn progress from chance into certainty.
The Experience
A private coaching trip is structured around one principle: uninterrupted, one on one coaching across consecutive days, with my undivided attention.
This is not a single session or a series of disconnected lessons.
Private coaching is delivered in multi day blocks, with a minimum of three days, because meaningful change in surfing requires continuity.
We meet before the trip, with a video call where I get to learn more about you, and together we set some goals.
During the trip, you receive full access to me throughout the day.
We work in the water, and out of the water. Most sessions are filmed, and we break them down together so you can see exactly what is happening and why.
That process is what allows the brain to wire new pathways that eventually show up as consistent skill in the water.
The coaching itself covers everything meaningful for your progress and for the goals we set for the trip.
Everything I teach you, is always in relation to you and personalised to you and the way you learn.
Rather than isolating skills, we work on how they connect, so improvements hold up outside of coached environments, so you become more and more independent in the water.
Coaching does not stop when you leave the water. Between sessions, we break down what just happened. Why something worked or didn’t. Where you were positioned when sets came through. What you noticed, what you missed, and what to look for next time.
This is where much of the clarity forms. Surfing is not just physical. Understanding how the ocean works and how you fit into it is a large part of progress, and we treat it that way.
The location is flexible, anywhere in the world.
Private coaching trips have taken place in the Maldives, Indonesia, across Europe, Costa Rica, and in wave pools such as Alaia Bay and The Wave. You choose where you want to surf and for how long. I come with you.
This is a high-touch, high-investment experience. It requires focus, energy, and commitment from both sides. In return, clients regularly describe three days of private coaching as equivalent to a year of unfocused practice, or months spent in group environments.
You don’t leave with drills.
You leave with understanding and independence.
And a way forward that continues long after the trip ends.
Apply now to check availability for private coaching
A Different Kind of Coaching Experience
There are excellent surf coaching programs that operate within highly structured environments. Resorts, pools, controlled sessions, set schedules, and carefully designed progression systems work very well for many people.
Private coaching trips are different by design.
This work does not take place inside a fixed curriculum or a controlled environment. It happens in different lineups, changing conditions, unfamiliar breaks, and imperfect days. That is intentional.
The goal is not to move you through a program. The goal is to change how you think in the water so that progress carries with you wherever you surf next.
If you are looking for a fully contained experience where everything is scheduled and progression is guided step by step, there are excellent places that do that extremely well.
Private coaching is for surfers who want to make their own decisions in the ocean and no longer depend on constant guidance to surf well.
Both paths lead to improvement. They simply produce different kinds of surfers.
Martin - From Dependence to Confidence
“The biggest difference wasn’t how I surfed that week, but how I surfed afterward. Even in unfamiliar lineups, I could rely on what I’d learned instead of hoping things would work out. That’s something I’d never experienced before.”
When Martin first reached out, he was not new to surfing. He was fit, motivated, and deeply committed. He had invested in trips, coaching, and time in the water, yet his progress never felt stable. Each session depended heavily on conditions, guidance, or external reassurance. When those supports disappeared, confidence dropped with them.
What became clear early on was that Martin’s issue was not effort or athletic ability. It was independence. He had learned how to surf in environments where decisions were made for him. Where to sit. When to paddle. Which waves to take. As a result, he could perform under guidance, but struggled to trust himself when left alone.
During our first private coaching trip together, the focus shifted away from performance and toward understanding. We worked on wave reading, positioning, and timing, and just as importantly, on how Martin interpreted what was happening around him. Instead of being told what to do, he learned how to assess situations himself and act with confidence.
The change was not gradual. Within days, Martin’s presence in the lineup looked different. He moved with purpose. He committed earlier. He started to make decisions. His body language showed confidence.
What mattered most was what happened afterward. Martin didn’t leave dependent on the coaching. He left with a framework. On later trips and in unfamiliar lineups, he no longer waited for confirmation.
He trusted his decisions, and continued progressing on his own.
For Martin, private coaching was not about surfing better for a few days. It was about removing the ceiling that had kept his surfing conditional.
Once that ceiling was gone, progress stopped resetting and started compounding.
Availability
Private coaching trips are limited by design, not by selection.
This work requires an unusual level of focus, physical energy, and presence on my part. Because of that, I only take on a small number of private coaching trips each year. It is the only way I can deliver the depth of attention and consistency this work demands.
The application exists primarily to check availability and timing. It allows me to understand when you are hoping to travel, how long you want to work together, and whether our schedules align.
This is a high-touch experience. When I commit to a private coaching trip, my focus is entirely on you for the duration of our time together. That level of involvement is not something I can scale, which is why availability is limited.
If you are interested in working together, the next step is simply to apply so we can see if there is space in the calendar.
Practical Considerations
It’s normal to pause before committing to something this involved.
Some people worry about whether they are “good enough” for private coaching. That concern usually comes from past experiences where learning felt comparative or exposed.
Private coaching removes that entirely. There is no group dynamic and no performance pressure, at all. The work adapts to where you are, not where you think you should be.
Others hesitate because of time. Taking several days away can feel indulgent or impractical. In reality, this work exists precisely because time is limited. Private coaching is designed to replace months or years of scattered progress with focused clarity, so the time you do have becomes more productive afterward.
Cost is another consideration. Private coaching is a significant investment. What clients consistently find is that the value lies not in the days themselves, but in what those days prevent. Repeating the same mistakes for years, relying on supervision, or arriving at surf trips underprepared carries its own cost, of both time and money.
There is also the question of what happens after. The aim is not to create dependence or short-lived progress. The coaching is structured so that understanding carries forward. Clients leave with a way of reading the ocean and making decisions that continues to guide them long after our time together.
Investment & Logistics
Private coaching trips are priced based on location, duration, and travel requirements, and are the surf experiences with the biggest ROI I offer.
As a reference point, a four-day private coaching trip in Europe typically starts around €5,000, excluding accommodation and travel. Longer trips or remote destinations such as the Maldives or Indonesia are priced accordingly.
This reflects the level of preparation, focus, and one-on-one involvement required, as well as the limited number of private trips I take on each year. Exact details are discussed once timing and location are clear.
The application is simply the first step to confirm availability and explore what a private coaching trip would look like in your case.
Apply now to check availability for private coaching
what you
take home
A few months from now, you paddle out at a break that would have felt intimidating before.
You are calm. You are confident. You know how to move through the water, where to position yourself, and what to pay attention to. Whether you are learning to catch waves consistently or refining how you use the face of the wave, decisions come earlier and with less effort.
Confidence has replaced hesitation.
You’ve gained clarity.
You enter the water with intent instead of hope. Each wave gives you information you can actually use, rather than questions you have to carry back to the beach.
Progress is now something you can return to, build on, and trust.