Surf camps
my experience with surf camps
Big companies
Pure Surf camps
Pure Surf camp is a big German company that only focus them on Germans, Austrians and Swiss. They have a lot of camps, mostly in France but they're also Portugal, Canary Islands, Spain, South Africa, Maldives, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Costa Rica. If you speak German and are looking for a luxe surf camp than this is the perfect company. It's expensive but that makes it also more professional and more luxe. If you're a budget traveller than this camp is not the best choice.
Lapoint
La point is a Norwegian company that grew really big. They have camps all over the world. They have camps in Norway, Sri Lanka, Portugal, Costa Rica, Bali, Fuerteventura, El Salvador and a surf cruise in the Maldives. In my opinion it's propably the most professional, if you want to improve on all levels i think this is the camp. It's expensive but worth the money in comparison with other big companies.
Mojo Surf
Mojo Surf is an Australian company that has camps in Byron Bay, Arrawarra and Bali.
It's a great camp for backpackers in Australia. It has an amazing atmosphere with people all over the world, you will have the time of your life and there's a lot of possibilities to volunteer. In Arrawarra you also have the possibility to follow the academy, It' a course that goes from 1 to three months and if you do the three months you have a chance on becoming an instructor.
Kima Surf
Kima surf is a company with 4 camps in Bali and 2 camps in Sri Lanka. They have quality accommodation and quality surf instructors. They work especially with local instructors because of this you have privilege in the water. It's definitely recommendable
Soul & Surf
They have retreats in Sri Lanka, India and Portugal. I would say that this company mainly focuses on Yoga but also provides surf. It's a great camp for that search rest and some parts of their self.
Surf spirit
They have camps in Indonesia (Mentawai), Portugal (Algarve), Dewata (Sri Lanka) and Spain. The company is mainly focused on surfing but also focuses on Yoga, it's a great camp to combine these two. Prise quality i think it's a great choice. The packages various between 640 euro for the beach lodge in Sri Lanka to 1960 euro for the private island in Mentawai.
Local camps
Pros
Smaller and local camps mostly are cheaper and are more for budget travellers. Local camps always have privilege in the water, that means more ways and less conflicts. If you're young and like to party this is perfect.
Cons
They mostly have less budget, that means less quality. Accommodation will be less luxe, but the food would still be great. the quality of the surf lessons will be less than with big companies, simply because these instructors will be less educated and mostly are volunteering. A lot of times there are instructors without the ASI/ISA license and without the ocean rescue certificate, this makes it dangerous because they don't know what to do in rescue situations.