The Hotel del Coronado should support local Coronado business. Coronado Surfing Academy is a local Coronado business, founded and run by longtime Coronado resident Teevan McManus. Teevan is a 1994 Coronado High School graduate, who grew up surfing at our beaches before turning his passion for the water into a surf instruction business called Coronado Surfing Academy. Starting in 2005, Teevan and his staff have taught surf lessons at Coronado’s South Beach for eighteen years. Coronado Surfing Academy has provided hundreds of jobs to local kids over the years. Friendly, knowledgeable, and fun instruction have generated significant goodwill for the island and Coronado Surfing Academy, which has 5-star ratings on Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Google. You’ve undoubtedly seen the Coronado Surfing Academy “Cool Bus” around the Shores, and your kids may have learned to surf through the summer surf camps run by Teevan and the Coronado Surfing Academy.

Coronado Surfing Academy was granted the surf school and equipment rental contract for the Hotel Del Coronado in March 2022. With frequent beach closures, business has been tough. Despite these challenges, Teevan has kept the Coronado Surfing Academy open, has continued to employ local youths on his staff, and has continued to offer surf lessons whenever the beach was open. But now, he is being pushed aside by Blackstone Group, the New York private equity giant which owns the Hotel Del. Days ago, Teevan was notified that Blackstone Group is replacing Coronado Surf Academy with a Hawaii-based corporate surf school operation called Jamie O’Brien Surf Experience. That business provides surf lessons and equipment rentals at the Blackstone-owned Turtle Bay Resort on the island of Oahu. Teevan was told that local Hotel Del management had nothing but praise for his operation, but that Blackstone decided to terminate his business at the resort, and replace it with a Hawaii-based vendor with whom Blackstone has a corporate relationship. Jamie O’Brien, a professional surfer whose name is on the Jamie O’Brien Surf Experience business, has no ties to Coronado, and will not be here to teach lessons, as Teevan has done locally for the last 18 years.

THE HOTEL DEL’S ANTI-LOCAL BUSINESS DECISION SHOULD NOT STAND. Coronado Surfing Academy is a local business, employing local people, and it has loyally served residents and visitors in Coronado for the last eighteen years. The Hotel del Coronado should support its community and its neighbors, rather than casting them aside in favor of corporate partners from out of state.

DEMAND THAT THE HOTEL DEL CORONADO KEEP CORONADO SURFING ACADEMY.