About Us
Sunset Suratt Surf Academy is the premier surf school on the North Shore of Oahu. We have lived here for five generations, are the only truly “local” surf school, and we guarantee you a great time. We love sharing our passion for the ocean and surfing with others and we want you to have truly amazing time!
Bryan Suratt, or “Uncle Bryan” as his friends all call him, is the owner of Sunset Suratt Surf School. He’s been teaching surfing lessons and coaching pro surfers for most of his adult life, and started Sunset Suratt Surf School in 2003 to make his surf lessons and instruction more widely available outside of the North Shore community. (Publicity was usually just by word of mouth before that time.)
Born and raised on the North Shore of Oahu, Uncle Bryan is truly a Sunset Beach local. For five generations, the Suratt family has lived here. With Sunset Point and surrounding surf breaks as their backyard, it’s perhaps easy to see why the Suratt family has lived and breathed surfing their entire lives.
An experienced surfer since the 1960s, Uncle Bryan and was voted by Surfing Magazine as “Surfing Coach of the ’90s”. He has coached some of the top surfers in the world today; just a few of his pro students have included: Andy Irons, Bruce Irons, Mark Occhilupo, Joel Parkinson, Derek Ho, and Joel Tudor, among others.
Uncle Bryan has also traveled the world with the Local Motion, Gotcha, and MCD surf teams, helping with coaching and contest strategies for their riders. He now spends most of his time right here on the North Shore of Oahu coaching his students. It’s easy to see that he truly loves his job, and it reflects in his passion for teaching and the joy he gets from watching his students reach their surfing goals.
Friends in the Community and Charitable Work
Uncle Bryan has lived on the North Shore since he was born. By the age of ten, he was surfing many of the local breaks before they even had the names they’re known by today. As he got older, he taught a lot of the younger kids and up-and-comers behind him, and then their kids, too. It would be an understatement to say that he’s made a few friends along the way.
Every so often we get some very distinguished visitors that drop in to say hi, meet our students, and sometimes even teach a lesson or two. We’ve guessed it’s their way of saying thanks to someone who played an influential role in their life, but whatever the reason, it’s always a real honor.
One way that we stay involved in the larger community outside of Hawaii is through non-profit work. Uncle Bryan is an active supporter of several organizations, including the Mauili Ola Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation and Life Rolls On. The video featured here is of Barney Miller, who was rendered a quadriplegic after a car accident when he was 20 years old. Barney has made tremendous steps toward recovery in the time since. You can read more about Barney’s story on Surfline.
In 2019, Uncle Bryan and his crew helped the charitable organization Surf 4 Hugs to put on their annual North Shore event for kids and their families. (You can read more about that day in the post on our blog.) If you have a loved one or know anyone that we could make a difference for, please contact us by e-mail or give Uncle Bryan a call direct at (808) 783-8657. Aloha!
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