Ocean Beach Surf & Skate Shop

Great selection of surf stuff and cool wearable. Surf lessons and SUP lessons are very reasonable. Josh was a great instructor.

I just put a deposit down on my third surfboard from these guys! This place rules! The staff is friendly and attentive and the dudes that work at the piercing shop next door really know how to party.

Amazing experience! My nearly six-​year-​old daughter had so much fun with these group of guys during her surf camp. She got sick after the first couple days of camp and the staff said that we will be able to make up those three days in the later spring or even next summer. She completed the second week of surf camp and loved it!

Ok — this review is long overdue. After some extenuating circumstances that prevented my boy from attending his pre-​paid Surf Camp this summer, my girlfriend spoke to Christina and they were able to hold the camp until next summer!
The people that run this shop and those who I have had interactions with are beyond cool. Christina and Tyler are seriously customer oriented people!
Did I mention what a a great time my boy had in their camp last summer? If you are looking for a cool way to introduce your child to surfing, or improve their skills in the water (or on the skateboard) — these are the people to see.
The camp was great last summer but because of the way Christina handled my particular situation she has earned my LOYALTY. These are awesome people who take care of their customers!
Don’t look anywhere else in San Diego for camp needs for your child because OB Surf & Skate are the best!
Thanks again Christina and it was a pleasure to speak with you in the shop Tyler.

Our 6 year old son ABSOLUTELY LOVES this camp! He has done a wide variety of camps, like the zoo camp, lego camp, balboa park museum of man and museum of art camp, chess camp, exploding science camp, camp fire, etc. and has enjoyed them all but he has never so enthusiastically requested to do them again like he has with OB Surf and Skate’s summer skate and surf combo camp (skateboard in the morning and surf in mission beach in the afternoon — the ultimate in So Cal living!). We have him signed up for 3 weeks! He was a total beginner when he started with them and after a few days, he was already standing on the surf board and learning to skateboard in the bowl. The teachers are fun, patient and attentive with the kids and the whole camp is really well run and organized. Our son is just so happy. They provided all the gear (we just brought his own helmet since he has one but they have them there too) but after we saw how much he was into skateboarding, we bought one for him at their store where they customized it for him and students get 10% off. And we got a sushi board at costco. I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend them!

Went for surf lessons here with my family; we had the best experience with a surfing instruction that knew his stuff, was super friends and had a great sense of humor, as well as teaching us the basics and being patient about it! Such a fun experience and the prices are reasonable for lessons and equipment. Highly recommend :)

Most excellent, of service. Thank you for being open at 9am.
It was a smooth transaction. $ 16 for a 2hr surf rental. They had the board ready for me outside once I completed payment/​deposit. Dropped it at the same spot when I returned and they took care of the rest.
Great music inside the shop. Easy going people, doing business well.
See you again :)

Ordered my sector nine board from these guys. When it arrived they called and held it till I could pick it up. Very friendly and helpful people!

This review is for the surf lesson, which I received as a gift. I was in a group with two other people and our instructor could have split his time much more effectively between folks who were in whitewater and the guy who was surfing in deeper water. Once we were out, he spent about 75% of his time in deeper water so I didn’t get much instruction outside of the dry land instructions on the Indo board, etc. Really nice guy and enjoyed talking with him, helpful tips, but a big part of doing group lessons is knowing how to manage a group effectively and split time well! I have taken many group lessons, surf and ski, and I would not recommend this shop.

Friendly place! I do wish they asked what kind of boards we wanted, but perhaps they only had foam boards left or something. They let us use the $ 5 off for Unilocal for each of us, even though only one person paid.
There is a hose out back for washing off afterwards. There’s only one changing room though. It’s just a short walk to the beach!

The groupon i got for the 3 hr surf lesson for 50 $ was my best groupon purchase! The people here were really friendly and the service at the front desk was good and quick. Our trainers were Chase and Armand. They give you the wet suit and start with an hour of training on the ground with the indo boards. This part is quite challenging but they make you feel ok if you dont quite get the hang of it. Armand really helped me with some good tips like asking me to pick a constant to stare at and have my knees bent etc. With his tips i was able to do a little better. Then you walk over to the beach carrying the cool surf board. I picked the heaviest one and Armand saw me struggling to carry my board and offered to carry it for me. Once we got into the water, he was completely patient and helpful the whole time and dint give up untill I finally was able to catch a good wave and surf a little although just for a few seconds.
The complete experience was amazing. Im really glad i took this class. They also give you the next day rentals complimentary which is so cool! But since it was my first time i was pretty tired after the class and did not go back the next day. But ill definitely go here again. Highly recommend this place for a surf lesson for any newbie!

Came because of the groupon deal $ 50 for a 3hr surfing lesson (including board and wetsuit rental) since normal price was $ 100. That $ 50 groupon ended up getting me the 3hr lesson + 3hr rental the next day!
Lesson: ~1hr dryland lesson on form and balance using indo boards. ~2hr in the water surfing. Definitely felt the indo boards were tougher than actually hitting the waves.

I walked into Ocean Beach Surf & Skate wearing an old school hoodie that I had purchased from them several years ago; I was even given a free sticker for my support. I love this place. To me this is my favorite surf shop in OB and one of my favorites in all of California.
I dig the large selection of clothing, boards, skateboards, bicycles, flops, hats, wetsuits, glasses, T-​shirts and how just about every visit they will have a new design popping up. I found an amazing shirt but they only had medium so I am hoping when I come back toward the end of the month to surf they will have a new selection of good in.
The staff here is great people, great vibe, great surfers, chill and to support everything that surfing stands for. I do visit other surf shops in the area but when it comes to major purchases the OB Surf & Skate is where my heart lies.
I will continue coming here for years to come and if you haven’t checked this place out yet what are you waiting for?
Side note, if you have an Iphone and check into OB Surf & Skate you receive $ 5.00 off any rental (See attached photo).

Came into OB surf & skate shop today and was very upset with their service. I am a customer of this shop and have spent hundreds of dollars here on their skate boards. When we walked in the employee’s (a man and a girl) were too busy chatting each other up to speak to my man when he walked by and when they saw me then I get a hello from them. I get tired of this treatment. A black man walks into the store and you ignore him and then a white woman walks in and you can speak now? I am not saying that it was racist but it happens all of the time. My man came in looking for a new long board and I was looking for a beach cruiser. We were there for about half an hour looking at the different boards and then walked over to the bikes and back to the boards. No one came over to assist us which was really pretty shocking considering this is the off season and every sale counts. Today we were willing to spend about $ 500.00 for both and we couldn’t get any assistance. Great customer service. Glad to see that your sales are so important to you and your employee’s. I am not sure where our usual guy that helps us was but apparently he was not there today. I am really upset with your service today! BOOOOOOOOOO

I live in OB and i’m not a huge surf shop kinda girl but my friend wanted to get a new dress so we checked out this place today. i’m not going to lie, i wasn’t impressed with the selection of clothing that the place has for women. maybe this store isn’t particularly targeting the female demographic but i think it should consider it.
The sales girl Hanna was awesome! her style was amazing and i wanted to wear her outfit! i asked where i could find her clothes in the store and she said that they didnt have her particular outfit. she was SUPER helpful and knowledgeable about the small selection of girls stuff that the store did have. overall i ended up buying a long maxi dress and i felt pretty good leaving the store.
that said– staff was rad but i want more cute girl clothes! just saying.

Used a Groupon deal with this place $ 100 for $ 50 for 3 hour surfing lesson. It was pretty useful. They did 1.5 hour on land surfing training using their «Indo boards» which helps with simulating surfing on land and helped exercised some of the weak muscles on your legs to help with your balance. I think in terms of surfing lessons, this is probably one of the better ones out in San Diego. I personally had lessons at Pacific Beach surf shop and this one is much better in terms of quality and valuable tips to not nose dive or plunge in the water while attempting to stand on the boards.
Another thing I liked was that since I am a newbie, I liked the boards that they provided. It’s much better than the ones offered at Pacific Beach surf shop. They were higher quality boards that weren’t like the flabby foam boards at PB surf shop. It really helps in getting newbies like me to stay standing while catching the waves.
Definitely recommend surfing lessons or surf rentals here. Price is a little steeper than its competitors so not sure if it’s for everyone.

spent a few days out in San Diego after a weekend climbing in Joshua Tree, and I thought, «well, here I am at the Pacific Ocean. I’ve never surfed here, and I would really like to… yet I don’t have my board. whatever shall I do??».
enter OB Surf & Skate. went there and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could not only rent a board, I could rent a board that didn’t suck. I’m used to renting those 7 – 6 foamtop Bic boards at surf shops. it was awesome to be able to get a 6 – 0 performance board with a stomp pad.
the service was great, all the employees were super friendly and helpful. they hooked me up with some wax and off I went. I had a great afternoon on the waves by the pier, returned the board, and that was that. if I’m ever back in San Diego (which I hope to be), I’ll be returning to rent a board here yet again.

The OB Surf & Skate Shop is more than «just» a great place to buy boards, gear, skips, and cool shades. They also have comfortable clothing, wet suits, books and zines by locals et al. It’s a well-​organized massive space with high vaulted ceilings decorated with boards and other beach-​themed items – including kayaks!
Did I mention that they have an awesome staff? They’re friendly, helpful, well-​informed, and other adjectives too numerous to mention!
In addition to providing reasonable board rentals, they’re also a nexus for lessons, training, surf trips, and after-​school programs.

I recently caught the surf bug. I’m no good, but thanks to this place I’ve at least got some fresh gear. Picked up a wetsuit and board shorts so now I’m ready to catch tasty waves either looking stylish or without freezing my nuts off in the cold Pacific waters. They also sell Deuce Brand watches, which work in water.
Not knowing the going rate apparently I overpaid for some of my gear. Kind of a bummer, but for the service here I didn’t mind too much. The dudes in the shop were super nice and hooked me up with a few free pointers to send me on my way to the pro tour.
With so many surf shops out there its hard to really decipher one from the other, but some encouragement and a little friendly chatter really made me remember OB Surf & Skate. I’d recommend them.

Guess who took over the old Rock Paper Scissors storefront on Newport Avenue across the parking lot from Starbux? Yup-O.B. Surf & Skate!
Gone is the half pipe they had out on Cable Street behind their store. Now the half pipe will be out in the parking lot behind the Tamale Cart-​mostly on weekends. This biz is now in the thick of all the homeless buskers action down the street.
Much roomier now and merchandise is more spread out. Not so confined a feeling inside. I like the people that work here-​they are very cool. They always offer support to Surfrider’s annual Paddle for Clean Water event. OBS&S shop had a booth at the Boat Show and were totally nice to all the groomies-​including my son.
I am happy that this old Bank of America property has found another good use and that a good solid OB business took it over. Even though there was supposed to be a tsunami today, the bigger buzz on the beach was this relocation and now they are just a stone’s throw away from the sand and shore! Most auspicious move!