Balboa Surf & Style

Talk about Service! This is the best rental place in SoCal. Seriously. If it were equipment alone, 5 stars. But add in the level of service which is off the charts and far above any and all expectations. I had an All-​Star baseball player with me (which they were not aware of.) I live on the island and i asked if i could have the bike delivered to my home and ready to go. they brought me an amazing man’s cruiser and as they dropped it off, they filled up my own bike with air and made sure both bikes were in great riding form.
They showed an All Star, All star service. Amazed and grateful beyond. Thank you Balboa SUP!!! Tricia O’Connor!

First time for our family to paddle board. Justin and Damon were very friendly and helpful. Justin gave us a ride down to the beach and gave us a quick lesson. We were able to explore Beacon Bay and under the bridge over to Harbor Island.
Very fun — would definitely do it again!

This place was great. Sam was very welcoming and accommodating. When renting a paddle board, they take you on a golf cart to the water. Never had to carry the board.

We found Balboa Surf and Style on Unilocal looking for stand-​up paddle board rentals in Newport and this shop is undoubtedly one of the best places to go. Damon, the owner, was so kind and friendly and made the experience one to remember. You can tell they really care about their customers. The staff drives you and all your gear right down to the water and gives you a little how-​to introduction if you’ve never done stand-​up paddle boarding before. They were helpful and recommended the best route to take based on the length of time you were renting for too. When you’re done they pick you up and drive you back and even have a hose for your sandy feet! We had such a great time! I can’t wait to go back and rent the paddle board for longer. There’s also discounts on the cute clothing inside their store when you rent a paddle board!

Seriously awesome place. Friendly staff, great location, clean boards, and an all around awesome time. Met the owner of the shop when he took us down to the water, he’s a really cool guy, definitely recommend this place. Ask about the deal you get on clothing when you rent a paddle board!

Had such a fabulous time paddle boarding and shopping. Thank you for a wonderful experience as I enjoy my spring break vacation. You are awesome!

We just had a beautiful day paddle boarding in Newport Harbor. Balboa Surf & Style was the best place to rent boards from! We called them this morning and they had our boards ready for us when we arrived. We had a group of 2 adults and 4 children and they were great with the kids as well. Boards were very clean and in great shape. Damon was incredibly polite and helpful. Justin drove us right to the sand on a clean golf cart and was equally courteous. Loved their store and did some fun shopping after as well. We will always rent from them when we paddle board.

I have to say that this shop extremely good. First they have some very unique clothing and they also support local artist. Second the staff was friendly, knowledgable and really nice I have only good things to say about this shop and SUP renting business I will be back to it soon

Best sup rentals in OC! Awesome selection of great boards and a suped up golf cart to take u down to the water. Competitive prices but completely worth it after feeling like you got a wonderful experience. Damon the shop owner was very accommodating and helpful, good vibes from him and all throughout the store. I wanted to stay a while after we were out of the water just to be around good people. I will definitely return!

What a shop !!! great service, they really no their product. I will be back for holiday.
William E.

Damon was very friendly & gave a thorough lesson prior to my first time paddle boarding. I had a great time with my daughter & we can’t wait to go again!

Paddle boarding has been on my husbands bucket list for years. My daughter suggested Balboa Surf on a recent visit. I was the reluctant participant. Had it not been affordable and made easy by Damon at Balboa Surf I would have stayed on the sidelines and taken pictures. Located in charming Balboa Island we were driven right to the beach where we «set sail». Damon made it fun and easy even for not an uncoordinated customer like myself. It made for a great day! if you’ve never tried paddle boarding this is the way to begin.

Staff was super friendly! Great prices on rentals. Had an awesome time paddling around the island!

What a great company, very humble and ready to help you and answer any questions you might have! I rented a paddle board for two hours for $ 40 and it was well spent! I will definitely be going back and trying their paddle yoga classes!

Balboa Surf & Style is by far the BEST surf shop on Balboa Island… We walked in and were in awe of how well put together this shop is… It’s absolutely beautiful… The staff is very courteous and knowledgable and we were greeted immediately when we walked in… The new owner is absolutely amazing, he came over and talked with us and gave us a little rundown on his and the stores background… The selection of goods was so amazing, I don’t even want to say how much we ended up spending. ;) We will definitely go back there when we are in the neighborhood…
All in all, you can’t ask for a better place to shop, if you’re visiting Balboa Island and don’t go in to Balboa Surf & Style, then you are definitely missing out…

Great shop! Helpful lady in store helping me with t-​shirt sizes etc. Great location in Balboa Island. Plenty of great gear to choose from. Hard to make decisions. Love the gear from local talent. Being from Australia I love going to different places (especially Cali !) and seeing different stuff that you can’t get back home. Freedom Artists t-​shirts were purchased. Highly recommended.

I always forget to write reviews but definitely wanted to review this place because I really appreciated the service today, when things were just not going my way! I won’t name the other surf shops but I’d been to two before this the same day. First I was trying to find one that I had a groupon for and my gps took me a really long way (via the ferry ugh.) and even once I got to the right area, I still got lost. Needless to say I was late, and by the time I found it, I knew they were closing in 45 minutes — but honestly from the looks of the place — I didn’t even want to go in, that says a lot. I figured if I wanted to go paddle boarding today I’d need to find another place nearby which would be open a little later, I googled it form my phone and had a hard time as it was very difficult to pull over and use my phone (hard to find parking…)Needless to say at this point I was hot and frustrated (was a very warm day and I’d driven already probably 2 hours — I was checking this area out for the first time). I thought I found the right place to go (said it was open until 6pm, all boards had to be back by 6pm)
I got there at about 4:32 after finding it (not easy…) and finding parking, I walked in thinking I was right on time… no. The lady was rude and said I was too late, that they stop taking people at 4:30. I was like… you can’t be serious… It’s barely after 4:30 right now. She protested some more, and then finally said ok i’ll go ask if they can take you. The guy was nice but it would be a big ordeal to take me down to the water as they had already taken all the boards back up to the shop. They got a lot nicer to me as they realized I’d been on the road awhile and had gotten lost, but realizing what an ordeal it would be for them to take me out for 45 minutes I just said «don’t worry about it» and asked if they knew a place open later. It was a beautiful day, warm and calm and the sun doesn’t go down until 8pm. I didn’t understand why everyone was closing –and what annoyed me more is they were closing up shop before their website says they do. I’d specifically driven there because their website said open til 6pm.
ANYWAY, all that to say you can see my annoyance level at this point, but I was still somewhat determined to go paddle boarding because if I didn’t my whole day would have been lost to traffic and sweating in the hot sun in my car waiting for people to move, etc.
so they recommended I walk down to Surf and Style, and they tried to call the guy there but couldn’t find his number… so I just walked and took my chances.
I walked in and felt a little weird thinking I must be the only person on earth who wants to rent a paddle board after 4pm.
I hardly noticed the merchandise as I just wanted to find out if I could finally rent a board! I didn’t know how difficult it would be either or how much it would cost considering their shop is on the main street and not on the water.
All i have to say is they were really super nice to me, laid back and made me feel comfortable. They were like ‘how long do you want to go’ and even offered I Could go for 2 hours. Very easy, they let me store a few things there since I had no where else to put it, use the restroom (as I’d been in a freaking car for almost 3 hours) and were just overall really nice — I also liked that they didn’t make jump through a lot of hoops considering I was by myself. They seemed confident that since I’m an adult and had gone paddle boarding before I wouldn’t be a total liability and didn’t force me to wear a life vest or anything like that. It’s kinda rare these days it seems you can just do what you want lol,
It was a guy and girl working this evening but I don’t know their names. They were both really nice and soon i was in the golf cart, getting a quick lesson (which was nice even though I’d gone before he gave me a few pointers I hadn’t gotten the first time, and he gave me a nice route to try and let me know of anything important… like stay on either side of those buoys, etc. and gave me a way to gauge my time out there while I was gone.
It helped the day was quite perfect I had a great time and it was worth all the earlier pain lol. I will defintitley go back and spend more time on Newport Harbor and paddle board around this area, I loved it. I am not ready to do ocean paddle boarding so that is part of the reason I was interested in this area, in addition to just seeing whats going on in Newport Beach area. I had a great time and after that I did a little bit of shopping.
The price was quite fair and he was there to pick me up once I was done paddling around, very nice. Another thing they were both on the younger side but I did not pick up any of that weird sort of intimidating surfer vibe from them, they were nice and helpful and I apprecaited that — most of all that they let me go a little bit later and stayed open a bit later — good to know!
cool merchandise too!

A friend and I decided to do some paddle boarding on a nice Friday afternoon. We met Justin at Balboa Island Paddle Board Co. and he was extremely nice and helpful. After filling out some paperwork at the shop, he drove us to the beach. This was awesome and convenient — we didn’t have to carry the boards with us. He gave us a quick lesson and off we went. It was a great experience and the friendly staff made it an even better experience.

If you’re looking to Stand Up Paddle board, this is the place to go! First, there’s the impeccable service from Dave & his crew — he delivered the paddle boards right to the beach on Balboa Island via a golf cart delivery service! These boards are not your usuable run of the mill rental paddle boards. Dave is stocked up on top of line boards.
First time paddle boarders, MUST take off from Balboa Island. 1. You get great instruction and take off on super calm water. 2. It’s sheltered from the major boat traffic in the main harbor. 3. From Balboa Island you can paddle around and explore not only the gorgeous waters surrounding Balboa Island but also — Harbor island, Linda Isle and even that Back Bay without hitting the pesty main harbor boat traffic!
We went paddle boarding in JANUARY — we only had to get about ankle deep in the water coming in & out, so i didn’t get sopping wet like i feared.

Had an awesome time here, my friends and I rented Stand Up Paddle Boards for a few hours and cruised the Newport Harbor and Balboa Island area. The boards are brand new, and it was really easy to learn. It was super affordable, and a good time was had by all.
Recommend you call ahead.
They give discounts if you rent more than one hour.