About Us

I grew up with the ocean shaping my life long before I ever understood what it would mean to me. For fifteen years I competed as one of America’s top amateur surfers, then spent another fifteen years as a professional surfer competing at the highest level all over the world. Over those years, I learned more than how to read waves. I learned discipline, patience, humility, and how to keep showing up no matter what life brought. Surfing gave me everything, and eventually it became clear that my purpose was not just to ride waves, but to teach others how to find something real in them too.

Today I own three surf schools, and Vast Oceans Surf and SUP has grown to 590 perfect five-star reviews. But the numbers only tell part of the story. What really built this life was love, loss, and a promise I made to my mother, Judy Bosniadis.

When my mother was diagnosed with stage four fallopian cancer, I stepped away from professional competition to take care of her as her single caregiver for 2 3/4 years. She was my best friend. Being there for her was the hardest and most important thing I have ever done. Even in that time, I knew I could hold my head high, because I was doing what love required. A week before she passed, she prayed and prayed about what would happen to her son after she was gone. In her heart, she found the answer: she told me to open a surf school.

She knew surfing had given me everything. She also knew it was the only path she could see that would help me keep moving forward and still find a reason to smile without her here on earth. A week before she died, she named the business Vast Oceans Surf, because I had surfed almost every ocean in the world through competition and free surfing. She wanted the name to reflect the life I had lived, but also the life she hoped I would build next. She told me to give back. She remembered the story from when I was ten years old, when someone said I had a beautiful surfing style and added, “You’re lucky, you can’t teach that.”

That stayed with me. It still does.

The day she passed away, I drove back to Florida and opened the surf shop and surf school. Since then, I have tried to honor everything she asked of me. The first thing I teach is safety. After that, I go out of my way to drill style, technique, and form. She told me, “Teach them style, Ryan. Teach them style.” She also told me, “Don’t be the best in a small town. Be the best in the world at teaching.” That became my mission.

I’ve never tried to be the best in one city, one state, or even just America. I’ve tried to produce the best results for every student, every day, to the best of my ability. This is my 16th season, and that mission is still what drives me. Vast Oceans Surf is more than a business. It is my life, my mother’s love, my promise, and my way of giving back.

Make it great. See you in the water.