Retail doors opened in 1999 as the brick-and-mortar home for Ocean Experience Surf School, which launched in 1990 as San Diego's first surf school and has since put more than 15,000 students through its water programs. The shop's surf inventory — shortboards, longboards, fishes, hybrids, fin systems, leashes, and wax — runs deeper than the skate-heavy wall at Pride Surf & Skate, reflecting its instructional heritage. Skate inventory covers complete setups, decks, trucks, wheels, bearings, and safety gear, with free skate clinics run annually at Robb Field during the Skate for the Kids fundraiser for OB Elementary PTA. Ocean Experience lessons, youth camps, adult clinics, and Baja surfari adventure tours operate on a City of San Diego permit out of the same Newport Avenue storefront, a credentialing path shared with South Coast Surf Shop Ocean Beach for retail-plus-lessons operations. Private, semi-private, and group lesson formats are priced by instructor ratio and session length, with wetsuit and board included and the shop handling sign-in, photo release, and parking guidance for the Santa Monica Ave beach lots. Multi-day Baja Adventure Tours — transportation, lodging, coached morning and afternoon sessions at Baja surf spots, and on-trip photo documentation — are the program's most involved offering, booked as corporate retreats, birthday packages, and custom field trips for school groups.