Bring swimwear, reef-safe sunscreen, water and a towel. A board and transport are already part of every package, and a rash guard comes with the Beginner and Group packs too — everything else is better left where you are staying.
Updated September 19, 2026
| Bring | Swimwear, reef-safe sunscreen, water, a towel |
|---|---|
| Provided on every package | Surfboard, free tuk-tuk transport, ISA certified instructor |
| Provided on Beginner and Group only | Rash guard |
| Not needed | Wetsuit — water is 27–29°C year round |
| Leave behind | Anything that cannot get wet or lost |
The facts table above is the whole answer in five rows; everything below explains where each row comes from.
Four things are worth bringing to a first lesson: swimwear you can move in, reef-safe sunscreen, something to drink, and a towel. Nothing on this list is exotic, and that's the point — a first surf lesson doesn't call for specialist gear, it calls for a handful of ordinary things done right.
Swimwear needs to hold up to paddling, popping up and falling off a board repeatedly, over and over, for the length of a lesson. A bikini or a pair of board shorts you'd actually swim laps in is the right test — not something that only works standing at the edge of the water.
Reef-safe sunscreen is worth being specific about rather than just writing "sunscreen" and leaving it there. That's general sun-safety advice for anyone spending time in the water near a reef, not a rule this school states or enforces, and it isn't this guide pointing at a specific brand or product, or claiming a local regulation requires it — it's the same kind of recommendation you'd see for any reef environment, offered here as sensible practice rather than something this site is establishing as fact.
Water matters more on a lesson day than it might on an ordinary beach day. Paddling and standing up repeatedly under a tropical sun is real physical effort, and it's worth having enough on hand to stay comfortable through it.
A towel covers the obvious job of drying off once the lesson ends, but it's also useful for the in-between moments — something to sit on while you wait, something to wrap around wet gear afterwards, something dry within reach the moment you're out of the water.
Bringing your own board, or arranging your own transport, isn't necessary — every package this school runs already includes what the lesson itself requires, so there's nothing to buy or borrow beforehand on either front.
Two things are handed over without exception, on all five packages this school runs: an ISA certified instructor, and free tuk-tuk pickup and drop-off for the lesson. No other item on any package's list works that way — everything past those two changes depending on which package you book, starting with the board itself and the rash guard.
A board is handed to you too, on every package, but which one depends on which package you've booked. Beginner and Group hand over a surfboard together with a rash guard as one combined item. Kids gets a kid-sized soft-top board, sized for that package's own six-to-twelve age range. Intermediate gets a performance board, for a surfer who can already catch waves and is working on turns and timing rather than standing up for the first time. Private, the one-on-one option, gets a premium board. Whichever package you book, a board is part of it — there's nothing to bring or rent on that front, only a choice already made for you by the package itself.
That rash guard is worth calling out separately, because unlike the instructor and the transport, it doesn't carry over to every package. Only the Beginner and Group Packs hand one over, bundled with the board as described above — the Kids, Intermediate and Private Packs don't include a rash guard at all. If you're booking one of those three and would rather have that extra layer, that's one more thing worth packing yourself. If you're booking Beginner or Group, it's already there.
A wetsuit doesn't make this guide's list, and that's not an oversight. The water along this coast stays at 27 to 29°C year round, warm enough that a wetsuit isn't something a lesson here calls for at any point in the year. That figure isn't seasonal the way the surf conditions themselves are — the source gives one year-round number, not a different one for any month, so there's no month where the temperature answer changes.
That also means you don't need to think about layering for warmth the way you might somewhere colder. Whether or not your package includes a rash guard, nothing about the water temperature here calls for a wetsuit or anything standing in for one — if you'd still like a rash guard on a package that doesn't include one, bringing your own is a reasonable choice, just not one the water temperature makes necessary.
A surf lesson means being in and out of salt water repeatedly, usually getting knocked off a board more than once. That's a bad combination for anything you'd be upset to lose, damage or have soaked, so the practical advice is simple: leave your phone, jewellery and anything else valuable back where you're staying rather than bringing it down to the beach.
This is ordinary travel advice, not a claim about what this school does with your belongings during a lesson — nothing in this site's own information describes on-site storage, a locker, or a lost-and-found, so this guide isn't promising one either way. If keeping valuables safe while you're in the water matters to you, that's worth asking about directly when you book, rather than assuming an answer one way or the other.
Put together with the short list and what the school already brings, the packing question for a first lesson turns out to be smaller than it looks: four things to bring yourself, a board and transport you don't need to arrange, a rash guard included on two of the five packages, no wetsuit needed at any time of year, and anything valuable left behind rather than carried down to the sand.