Slots that follow the tide
A website that works around the tide
Website design for surf schools
Your timetable isn't yours to set — the sea sets it. A diary built on fixed hours was never going to work here.
Your timetable isn't yours to set — the sea sets it. A diary built on fixed hours was never going to work here.
Slots that shift with the tide, holidaymakers who book the day before, kit hired out by size, and a four-month season.
The times change every day. The schedule goes out week by week rather than once and for all, and customers see the real start time.
A lesson for six, a five-day course and a one-to-one session share neither a length nor a price. Three separate services.
Wetsuit and board sizes are collected at booking. That's what saves twenty minutes lost on the sand at the start of every lesson.
Heavy seas, a storm: one message goes out to everyone booked on that slot, offering another date later in the week.
Slots that follow the tide
Group lessons, courses, private tuition
Kit by size and by level
Cancellations, sent in one go
The searches are local and urgent: “surf lessons” plus the resort, “surf school”, “kids' surf camp”.
Holidaymakers book one or two days ahead. A school you can't book online loses them to the one next door, however good the teaching is.
Show the level required, the minimum age and what's provided. Those three details are usually all it takes to win the booking.
The state certificate is required to teach surfing for pay, and the school must be registered.
Security - monitored area, flags, staff ratio - is not a commercial argument but an obligation, to be displayed.
The cancellation policy must be written: the weather will cancel classes, and a client informed in advance does not contest.
A visitor arrives with three questions: can I surf tomorrow, at what time, and how much does it cost. If they do not find the answer in twenty seconds, they close the tab. The wave shots, the logo and the lineup video only confirm what they have already worked out. So start with what is useful, then dress it up.
Every option deserves its page. A group lesson, a five-day course and a one-to-one lesson are not searched for with the same words: they cannot live at the same address. A page created per service is one more way in from Google, and a sharper pitch for the customer.
These pages hold together through simple internal links. From the children's course, you should reach wetsuit hire in one click. BetterSport builds that network of links as the site is created, and every page gets its own connected schedule showing the day's real sessions.
The searches are short and geographical. People type the sport plus the place: the town, the beach, sometimes the region, as in "surf school basque country". Then come the specific needs: first taste, teen course, surfing for beginners, board and wetsuit included. Your site has to use those words, your customers' words, not a brochure's.
Your Google Business listing is often the first contact. Fill it in completely: season opening hours, dated photographs, a direct link to booking. Reply to every review, however short. The website then has to confirm exactly the same information.
"Contact us to book" asks a holidaymaker to write, then to wait for a reply. They are on holiday: they will not do it, they will ring the next school. A booking system with limited places, a waiting list and automatic reminders turns that same visit into a paid booking, at 10pm included.
Publishing set times when the tide shifts everything each day produces late arrivals, phone calls and irritated customers. Managing the timetable week by week settles that. The rest of the losses almost always come from the same oversights.
The path has to be short: the lesson's page, the choice of session, the wetsuit size, the payment. Four steps, not seven. Online payment by Stripe at the time of booking settles two problems at once: cash flow at the start of the season and no-shows.
After that, the work does itself. The confirmation goes out straight away, the reminder the day before gives the lesson's real time, and a drop-out frees the place for the first person on the waiting list. Out of season, emails and campaigns keep in touch with the summer's pupils to fill the following spring. That is all time won back from admin.
You do not need a website on one side and management software on the other. BetterSport creates a bespoke website, designed and search-optimised for a surf school, with the booking inside it. Sessions are open around the clock, payment goes through Stripe, confirmations and follow-ups are automatic.
You keep control of what changes: the week's timetable, the options, the prices. Your pupils find their lessons in an iOS and Android mobile app under your own brand, and your team works on bespoke software rather than in a notebook. If your business also runs other activities, the same tools serve a sailing school.
The simplest thing is to see your season laid out in the schedule before deciding. You can talk to an expert or start your free 14-day trial, with no card details.
Yes — the schedule is set week by week, with the real time of each lesson.
Yes — at booking, so the kit is ready before they arrive.
One message to everyone booked on that slot, offering another date later in the week.
Yes — as a limited-places service covering several sessions, paid for in one go.
Yes. French regulations require a qualification and a professional licence to teach surfing for payment. Added to that are the background check for working with under-18s, suitable insurance and the medical certificate or declaration asked of pupils. Show these things on the site: it reassures parents and it is useful for your credibility.
No, the two do not do the same job. Instagram shows the day's conditions and keeps the community going, but it does not appear in local searches and it does not take a paid booking. The site captures the demand; social media warms it up.
By keeping the site alive out of season: next summer's dates, sign-ups opening, content on the spots, the levels and the equipment. Pages put up in winter work for you in the spring, when holidays are being planned. Nobody can guarantee a position, but a site that is up to date starts a length ahead.
Yes, hire is handled as a separate service, with its own durations and stock by size. A customer can book a board on its own or add it to their lesson. Everything lands in the same schedule and the same payment.