Surf’s up: How a Waterford surf school makes a living from the sea

As well as catering for between 3,500 and 4,000 children and young people at surf camps, school tours, and lessons, Oceanics Surf School and Marine Education Centre also holds schools outreach programmes in marine education

Paul and Jai Tuohy of Oceanics Surf School in Tramore, Co Waterford. 'You don't have to be a shredder and a ripper; it's a fun and all-inclusive kind of thing.' Picture: Dan Linehan

Back when Linda and Paul Tuohy opened their surf school in a cottage near the beach in Tramore in 1997, they sometimes had to explain to callers what surfing actually was.

“People would call up and say, ‘is that the thing with the big sail?’” Paul Tuohy recalled with a laugh.