The Wave Reviews 

Sickest place ever! Waves sick, people sick, overall sick love it

The Wave has been a great experience every time I’ve visited. It’s massively helped my surfing progress, and the staff and the whole environment make it quite a unique place. There will be plenty more surfs here!

Love the wave!! Great staff, cool shop, food and coffee is really nice

Always have a great time at the wave. The surfing is obviously the best bit, but the staff are friendly and knowledgeable and the cafe serves tasty food and coffee. All around good vibes and a fun day out.

Always have a great time visiting the wave. The wave itself is a tonne of fun. The staff are all super friendly, good food and drink on offer. Would 100% recommend.

Great customer experience, good flow from arrival to Wave. Excellent on site facilities. Food and coffee top notch too!

It's a truly unique experience, great people, so glad it is up and running again, looks like much better than before. Can't wait for it to get warm again....

I had an absolutely fantastic time at The Wave! From the moment we arrived, the staff were friendly, welcoming, and really made us feel at ease. The facilities are top-notch, clean, and well-organised, and the whole experience was smooth from start to finish.

I especially loved the surf session, the instructors were professional, encouraging, and really made it fun!

I would highly recommend The Wave to anyone looking for a fun and safe water-based experience. Can’t wait to come back!

As a typical customer new to the sport of surfing, I decided to give it a go this past summer. It was especially appealing as I noticed the prices had come down quite a lot since new ownership took over compared to when I last went 2 years ago.

I started with a beginner lesson and then a few surf practise sessions on my own and have now progressed such that I can move to intermediate.

Everytime I booked, the booking experience online was easy and seamless. The actual process for signing in when you arrive is also quick and painless. Wetsuits are free if you require one and there are plenty of changing rooms and a hot outdoor shower for afterwards.

It's a lot of fun, and almost even more so when the water is chilly and you get that cold rush when you first enter the water.

The restaurant food is stunning and packed with flavour and I can see that the head chef puts a lot of time and effort into the menu and cares about good food, which is always great to see.

Overall I'd most certainly recommend for adults and children alike. Even now as its getting colder, I'd still recommend the adrenaline lovers to go challenge themselves!

Awful customer experience. I bought my brother a voucher for The Wave — he travelled five hours to attend his booking, but a major accident caused standstill traffic and he arrived two hours late. He tried to call ahead but was told there’s no phone number available because they don’t have enough staff to answer calls.

On arrival, he was told the voucher couldn’t be used or rebooked. Considering the circumstances and lack of any way to contact them, that’s completely unacceptable.

After reading recent reviews, it’s clear this is a recurring issue — customers unable to reach anyone, no flexibility, and vouchers being wasted. For a business that markets itself around wellbeing and inclusivity, this kind of treatment is really disappointing.

Wouldn’t recommend until they improve their communication and customer care.

I visited The Wave in Bristol recently and had an amazing time. The whole place has such a welcoming, positive atmosphere — whether you're an experienced surfer or a complete beginner, everyone’s encouraged to just have a go and enjoy it. The instructors were brilliant: patient, knowledgeable, and genuinely passionate about helping people improve.

The setup itself is really impressive. The water quality is great, the waves are consistent, and there’s a good balance between challenge and fun. It’s also much more peaceful than I expected - surrounded by nature, with plenty of space to relax before and after your session.

Had a great day out with grandchildren, lots of fun in the water, staff were polite and helpful. The cafe overlooks the water and has a good choice of food and drinks for everyone.
This was out second visit and and after their hiccup earlier in the year we thought it had improved and was good value for money.

Ripping off loyal customers who purchases bundles.

They cancelled several pre-booked sessions before the ownership issue started due to schedule issues, after that they have refused to provide new booking or refund.

The rest of my bundles where frozen during the summer and they gave 1 extra mth to use them but this is not acceptable as I am unable to use during the winter. Additionally I still cannot book using bundles due to an error. Total waste of space and rip off.
They claim it's a favour to honour bundles, they however inherited the exiting bookings and are legally obligated to honour them.

Not happy surfed there since they opened doubt I will again.

A few months ago, I went there to celebrate my mate’s birthday with his dad and brother. We had two surf sessions booked. After the first one, we were relaxing at the snack bar, grabbed a few snacks, and my mate’s brother and I decided to have a pint each.

Moments later, a staff member came over and told us we couldn’t go for our second session because the contract stated no alcohol before surfing, and that everything was recorded on camera. Honestly, that was frustrating, no one mentioned this rule when we booked, and there were no signs near the bar warning customers. We explained that we’d only had one pint and didn’t know it wasn’t allowed, but the staff member was completely inflexible and wouldn’t let us back in. To make things worse, we noticed other people who’d also had beers and were allowed to surf again. It felt unfair and inconsistent.

We later spoke with the manager on the phone, who was quite rude and unwilling to hear us out. In the end, they did refund us, but it really soured the day, we’d come all the way from London and had planned the whole day around this. Overall, it was a disappointing experience that could’ve easily been handled better with clearer communication and a bit of understanding.

Since the new owners took over, the vibe is transformed - great service, happy and talented staff, lower and simpler prices - now great value. It is an amazing facility, the family (different surf ability) had three great days there over the last month...

Friend in our group had emergency surgery a few days prior to our session.
They wouldn’t offer any refund or compensation. Very disappointing

The wave itself is wonderful - never disappoints my husband and my 16 year old son , they always have the best time .
I feel that the wave is letting itself down unfortunately in quite a few areas. Loads of staff milling around most of whom (except a few who were on the ball) seem to be fairly clueless, lazy, stood looking at there phones etc! … computer says no, sorry , not sorry! One of the lifeguards was vaping which I thought was a bit unprofessional!
Coming up from Cornwall or anywhere where else is an expensive trip by the time you have paid for everything involved in coming to the wave, fuel, fee, accommodation etc only to be absolutely screwed over by the prices of food and drinks at the wave!
Absolutely shameful pricing, the food and drink on offer is expensive. I just don’t understand why there is not a greater range of affordable food and drink on offer? We decided to eat elsewhere as many will especially a family with more than one child! Which is a shame as we were all starving so it was also a bit inconvenient!
I don’t like being a ‘Karen’ but I really feel that families should know this before going so that they can get stocked up with drinks and snacks before they go!
In summary, the wave is great but the people behind it are being a bit greedy in hard times … if management don’t step in and sort out these fundamentals I give the wave 12 months at best … which will be a real shame.

Had a beginner lesson this week, and was thoroughly happy with the experience. We had two instructors with a group of about 10 or 11, including ~4 kids. For £40 you got half an hour land session, then an hour in the water, which seemed good value to me. The two instructors were great, very energetic, engaging, and friendly. They gave tips everytime you went around, and you could ask plenty of questions. There was a bit of queuing in the water during first few sets, but by the end of the hour it was fine, and I was too tired to carry on any way. Seems to be lots of negative reviews on the booking system and communication; it seemed to work fine when I just booked my follow up session, but perhaps my opinion will change with time. Seems odd the beginner session (without an instructor) is £5 more than the lesson. The walk from the car park is mildly annoying, as you have to factor in thetime, but it is only 10 minutes (someone on here said 20, but they must have been walking very slow) plus it does say on the website. Showers were hot, and you don't need any coins for lockers. Not sure if I'll take it up long term, as it's an expensive hobby, plus the membership bundles aren't available for purchase. Overall would highly recommend.

I was disappointed with my experience at The Wave. The communication during the session was poor, which made it hard to understand what to do once in the water. The initial lesson outside was clear and helpful, but once we got into the water, the instructors seemed disengaged and low in morale.

The class size was far too large, which meant we spent most of the time queuing for a wave rather than actually surfing. On top of that, the session was mixed with both young children and adults, so the instructors focused mainly on helping the kids, while understandable this leaving adults with no guidance. For what was advertised as a beginner session, there was essentially no support in the water.

It’s such a shame, because the facilities themselves are excellent and the concept is great. With smaller groups, clearer communication, and more engaged instructors, this could be a brilliant experience — but as it stands, it was very disappointing.