Giving Back

One Watershed is a beach access equity initiative by Surfrider Foundation and Aqua Surf School that connects underrepresented LA youth with the ocean. Through free surf lessons, community, and watershed education, the program fosters belonging and environmental stewardship. Since 2019, it’s impacted hundreds of kids each summer—with four events set for 2025.

Learn More Here

Alive Day is a celebration of survival, healing, and community where Aqua Surf provides free surf lessons to wounded veterans and their families. In partnership with Wounded Heroes of America and Dive N’ Surf, the event fosters joy and connection through ocean therapy, support services, and shared experiences. The event is held annually in August.

Learn More Here

An annual charitable collaboration from that champions environmental education, surf instruction, surf camps, and a healthy sense of community to over 300 inner-city kids for 6 months. The Los Angeles Police Department, Surfrider Foundation (Los Angeles chapter), and Aqua Surf have teamed up to help, inspire, and teach hundreds of under-served kids every year.

Learn More Here

An annual collaboration event where we host youth and families from all over Southern California for a day of surf instruction, empowerment and fun. Having become a tradition after over five years of partnership, the Hemophilia Foundation of Southern California brings such great energy to the beach that is only matched by the excitement of their often brand new surfers with the comfort of having medical professionals present.

Since 2014, our school has donated customized surf classes (that run all summer long, every year) to Santa Monica Police Activities League for a highly diverse and challenging population of at-risk youth. Aqua Surf instructors mentor and teach the same group of kids throughout the summer though these specialized ocean-surf-life classes. It focuses on helping kids build confidence, improve communication, learn important problem solving skills, and the sport of surfing.

Every summer, we love teaching the wonderful kids at the Braille Institute who are blind or have extreme sight loss experience surfing. Their mission is to eliminate any barriers to leading a fulfilling life, and we genuinely support their cause.

For several years, Aqua Surf has worked with kids of PS I Love You at their annual Day at the Beach event. The purpose of this day is “to bring the community together through an easy and memorable event that allows adults to mentor, give back and share time and hope with underprivileged children living in our nearby communities (cities include South Central Los Angeles, Compton, Watts and Long Beach).”

Aqua Surf School and Exhale Yoga teamed up to run a complimentary yoga-surf camps during the summer. The two practices synergistically work together and help enhance the other.

We worked with After School All-Stars, a program that operates in communities that are with the greatest needs and fewest resources, on a custom surf camp. Their goal is to enlighten and inspire young people by providing dynamic and exciting opportunities for success, while cultivating self-esteem, leadership and respect to help build healthier communities.

Aqua Surf volunteered instructors for the Veterans Affairs Adaptive Surf program, a learn-to-surf camp for men and women with physical and psychological impairments as paralysis, stroke, visual impairment, amputation, Traumatic Brain Injury, PTSD, burns, and other complications. Instructors use precise sensory communication to guide and encourage students through the process.