Established in 2008, we thought it was time to tell the story of how Manly Surf Guide started and share the ups and downs along the way.
Founder Ryan Hayfield grew up in Dee Why and spent most of his time surfing. Dee Why Point was like a second home. Ryan attended Narrabeen Sports High School in the school surfing program, where his surf coach happened to be Matt Grainger — the owner of Manly Surf School.
During his school years, Ryan worked for Manly Surf School on weekends and through the school holidays and quickly fell in love with surf coaching and being around the ocean every day.
After finishing school, Ryan started a carpentry apprenticeship. He enjoyed being on the tools, but deep down knew it wasn’t what he wanted to do forever.
After Ryan completed his apprenticeship in carpentry, Ryan sadly lost his father. Before he passed away, his dad told him to follow his dreams, enjoy life, and make the most of every day because life goes by fast. Those words inspired Ryan to take a chance and start Manly Surf Guide.
The original idea behind the business was to take experienced surfers to the best surf spots around Sydney — a true “surf guide.” Unfortunately, the idea didn’t really take off, with only one or two bookings in the first summer.
Ryan continued doing carpentry work while constantly thinking about how to make the business work.
The following summer, everything changed. Ryan started offering beginner surf tours with softboards supplied and surf lessons included. The idea was a hit. The tours became busy every weekend, and the business slowly began to grow.
Ryan still worked on building sights during the quieter winter months to help keep things going, but year by year the business continued building.
Eventually, Ryan purchased another minibus and hired surf coaches to help out. By 2016, Manly Surf Guide had grown to two minibuses and around 10 staff, running surf tours, private lessons, kids camps, paddleboard lessons and surf hire.
That same year, Manly Surf Guide opened its retail store in Brookvale, specialising in beginner softboards and surf gear.
The Ups and Downs
From the outside, the business looked like it was booming, but behind the scenes it was a different story. After paying staff, maintaining the minibuses, rent and covering overheads, Ryan’s profit was much the same as when he was running everything on his own years earlier.
Still, Ryan kept pushing forward, working seven days a week, learning as he went, and figuring out what worked — and what didn’t.
Ryan never studied business at university. He was simply a surfer from Dee Why following his passion and learning through experience.
In 2018, Ryan and Matt Grainger sat down and had a meeting together. They decided to join forces. Since then, many of Manly Surf Guide’s lessons and packages have been run together with Manly Surf School.
This partnership was a huge relief and allowed Ryan to focus more on building the retail side of the business. The team was scaled back to a smaller operation with a stronger focus on the surf shop and beginner equipment.
The past few years haven’t been easy. Like many small businesses, we’ve faced plenty of challenges — including COVID, wet summers, flooding, shark incidents, and increasing competition from large department stores.
But through all the ups and downs, we’re still here, still surfing, and still loving life nearly 20 years later.
And we’d just like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported Manly Surf Guide along the way.
