How Surf Simply became a Small Giant
Surf Simply is the best surf coaching resort in the world. Ru Hill shares how he built an experience surfers keep coming back for.
I could tell Ru was different. He’s less surf bum and more surf geek.
When I first met Ru in 2008, he was sketching wave diagrams in the sand to explain a theory of his called “Spot X.”
Ru on our 36 hour trip to the Mentawais Islands in Indonesia.
He had just moved from England to Costa Rica and was teaching students to surf out of his broken-down truck.
What Ru started 10 years ago has grown into Surf Simply, a premium, all-inclusive surf coaching resort.
Each week, 12 guests fly to Nosara to advance their surfing with Ru’s team. Every available guest spot is booked out a year in advance. Surf Simply has a waitlist of approximately 200 people. Any last minute opening is nabbed within five minutes.
Surf Simply, simply, is a success.
I’m fortunate to have worked for three rocket-propelled companies during their earlier stages (eBay, Facebook, Instagram). Surf Simply is equally as special.
I’ve been Surf Simply’s strategic advisor since 2008, and it’s the business I’m proudest to be associated with.
Why? Because of the impact they have on guests’ lives beyond surfing.
Surf Simply changed my life. Ru and his team taught me how to learn systematically. I now confidently confront my fears and am kinder to myself. Since that first surf lesson from Ru 10 years ago, I’ve taken more calculated risks—changing careers, starting People & Company, moving to a different continent and daring to be an artist.
I strongly recommend listening to the full interview.
To learn more about how Ru built something so special, Bailey, Kevin and I sat down with Ru on a recent trip to Costa Rica.
Below are the three things that stood out to me from our conversation.
1. Invest in people.
Ru knows that his team is the secret sauce of his business.
The coaching team aka the secret sauce of Surf Simply.
At People & Company, we believe that people show up for a service, but they come back for the people. That holds true for Surf Simply.
Surf Simply has a stunning 30% retention rate. On any given week, four of 12 students have been before.
If guests first show up to get better at surfing, they keep coming back for how Surf Simply’s coaches and staff make them feel.
“People love being around people who genuinely, really care about them.
My goal is to find coaches who aren’t just doing a job. We want coaches who spend the extra time with guests after surf, when they don’t have to, but because they want to.” — Ru Hill, founder Surf Simply
Ru knows his coaches are the secret sauce of the business so he thinks deeply about how to design Surf Simply to make sure the coaches are fulfilled.
He’s given ownership equity to three long-time employees Harry, Dani and Jessie. They’re now partners in the business.
His business goals are oriented around the well-being of his staff, which he explores in-depth in our interview. Ru’s aspiration is to pass what he calls the “Parents’ Friends Test”:
Harry with proud mum and dad.
“I don’t just want the Surf Simply team to feel good about what they do. I want the people most important to them to feel that way too. I want Harry’s parents to understand that their son is a successful entrepreneur, renowned podcaster and respected leader. The real icing on the cake is when a coach’s mom or dad is approached by their peers full of admiration because they’ve heard about Surf Simply.” — Ru Hill
Ru thinks about each and every one of his 35 team members as people first. He puts a ton of his critical thinking power into figuring out what his team needs to find meaning and purpose in their careers, then he makes it happen.
2. Critical thinking is a valuable skill for entrepreneurs & surfers alike.
Ru has transformed the “woo-woo” culture of surf instruction.
Ru, at home, listening to Steven Novella, his scientist crush.
Ru proudly calls himself a surf geek. Ru had no fixed beliefs about surf, and he never pretends to know what he doesn’t. In his spare time, he listens to podcasts about skepticism and science. (His favorites are “The Skeptics Guide to the Universe” and “Waking Up” with Sam Harris.)
In short, his critical thinking ability is off the charts. That scientific approach is lacking in most surf coaches I’ve encountered. In fact, it’s rare among the startup founders I work with too.
“Surf culture generally is about surfers being cool and aloof. The whole lifestyle is made to be impenetrable. Surf Simply, right down to our little logo, says we are not the cool kids. We are like the nerdy kids you are best friends with in school. ” — Ru Hill
Surf Simply’s coaching theories in one diagram.
Like other scientific minds, Ru tested his hypotheses in a “lab.”
Before moving to Costa Rica, he taught at a surf school on the cold beaches of Cornwall, England, for 10 years. He taught approximately 15 thousand tourists for 2.5-hour lessons each. He’d experiment with those students, A/B testing one coaching technique against another to see what worked.
Those early experiments are the foundation of Surf Simply’s coaching theories.
Ru replaced ambiguous surf lingo with concise, systemized coaching. That refreshingly clear approach is is why people choose to come to Nosara in the first place.
3. Being great is more meaningful than being big.
Ru prioritized quality over scale.
Every week, at least two guests ask Ru if they can franchise or invest. He can easily expand Surf Simply and make more money. Ru, instead, always focused on quality and the people he serves.
As Surf Simply’s advisor, I was often frustrated by Ru’s unwillingness to grow fast. At the time, I was one of Facebook’s early employees working on a team literally called “Growth.” But Surf Simply is the antithesis of Facebook’s “move fast, scale fast and break things” ethos. Surf Simply grew, but slowly. Now, they are a small giant.
Quality-driven businesses like Surf Simply will not create the profits of a Facebook or Instagram. Instead of striving to change the whole world and create wealth for key stakeholders, these businesses prioritize an even more compelling goal: Creating meaning for the people involved day to day. The clients and the employees.
This is harder than just chasing revenue. It takes skepticism and soul searching to orient a business around something greater.
But when others look left, Surf Simply looks right. Ru has crafted goals that are clear, well-researched, and specific to the business he wants to build.
“There is an unexamined assumption in businesses that bigger and more profitable is better. And they don’t stop to ask themselves “Why?”.
There’s no point in being richer than a certain income level when it comes to improving day-to-day emotional well-being. I’m lucky enough to have fairly simple tastes. I don’t think having more money in my life is going to make me any happier.
I want all 35 full-time Surf Simply employees to get to the same point. I will feel like the business succeeded only when all of us are at the point where any increase in salary would not increase the happiness in our lives. That’s a clear goal I want to reach.” — Ru Hill
Ru and the Surf Simply team are a living testament that businesses can and should aspire to grander, people-centered goals.
They’ve inspired me to do the same. 🖖🏼
I started People & Company with Bailey & Kevin to do just that. We help orgs supercharge groups of people (real ones filled with humans who genuinely care and stick around).
Know other fellow critical thinkers that are building thriving communities? Send me an email anytime: kai@people-and.com
People & Company in Nosara
Thanks Ru Hill for the many beautiful years of friendship.
Thanks to Bailey Richardson & Kevin Huynh for the getting me out of the deep dark night of my soul and the edits.
This case study was produced by the team at People & Company.
We published a book, host a podcast, and we work with organizations like Nike, Porsche, Substack and Surfrider as strategy partners, bringing confidence to how they’re building communities.
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