Kids Beach Day Camp FAQ

Camps are available in five-day, weeklong sessions only. If your family can’t make a full, weeklong session work, you may want to still register for a five-day session, and attend when you can. No prorating is possible for missed days.

If your selected camp week is full, you can look at availability for another week or another location – we offer camps all summer long in both New Buffalo and St. Joseph. If you can’t find an available week that will work for your family, please email erin@thirdcoastsurfshop.com to join a waitlist. In your message, please include the dates and location you’d like, and the number of children you want to register.

We will accept 5-year-olds who meet all of the following qualifications: have an older sibling (age 6-12) attending the camp; are able to listen to instructors; and have swimming experience and are comfortable in the water.

Yes! Please feel free to encourage your friends and family to sign up for the same week of camp. Camps can fill up quickly, so it is best to register as early as possible to ensure your group is all able to attend the same session.

Yes, all kids attending camp should have some swimming experience and be comfortable going into the water - this is an important foundation for learning to surf and stand-up paddleboard.

When you register online, you will provide us with information about each child you sign up – name, age, and any allergies or other special information you’d like us to know about them. After your registration is complete, you will receive an email confirmation with a link to an online waiver for you to complete prior to the start of camp for each child you signed up. If you do not receive an email confirmation after registering or have any difficulty completing the waiver, please email erin@thirdcoastsurfshop.com.

The federal tax ID for Third Coast Surf Shop Inc is 26-0640307. Please be sure to check with your tax professional with any questions.

At our St. Joseph location, families can register for both the morning and afternoon sessions for the same week to enjoy a full day at the beach. Parents meet the kids at the end of the morning session at 12 pm. They either stay at the beach to eat lunch (bringing lunch in or purchasing from the concession stand), or leave for lunch and come back at 1 pm for the afternoon session.

Please note that our instructors have a break between sessions and aren’t available to supervise between 12 and 1 pm, so parents should plan to be with their kiddos during that time — it’s a great time for the parents and kids to catch up!

In order to ensure a safe environment for our campers and to respect the time of our instructors, parents must pick-up their children from camp promptly at their session's designated end time (12 pm EST for morning sessions or 4 pm EST for afternoon sessions). We reserve the right to charge parents' credit card on file $20 for every 15 minutes our staff spends supervising their children past the designated pick-up time.

For example, if camp ends at 4 pm, the following fee structure will be in place: 

• 4:15 - 4:30: $20 late fee
• 4:31 - 4:45: $40 late fee 

If they know they will be late, parents should notify our staff as soon as possible - by calling the lead instructor listed on your reminder email either or by emailing erin@thirdcoastsurfshop.com. We appreciate advance notice so that our instructors can accommodate the delayed pick-up time and make sure the children are prepared for the change in plans. 

Camps run Monday through Friday from 9 am to 12 pm Eastern time at New Buffalo Beach (New Buffalo), and 9 am to 12 pm and 1 pm to 4 pm at Jean Klock Beach (St. Joseph). See the map below for directions. 

For each of the five days of camp, our instructors will keep kids busy with a variety of fun beach activities, including surfing, stand-up paddleboarding, skimboarding, bodyboarding, building sandcastles, and playing games.

Please note:

• Activities are determined based on weather and water conditions at the time. If the conditions are deemed unsafe on Lake Michigan by the National Weather Service, we will focus on land-based activities, then focus on water-based activities another time.
• Campers will take turns with activities and equipment to make sure instructors can provide hands-on supervision, and to give everyone a chance to participate.
• It's important to us to provide an awesome experience for our campers, so instructors will follow the kids' lead on their choice of activities. If a child isn't interested in a particular activity with one instructor, we'll have other options to enjoy with other instructors. (That may explain why your child doesn't seem to be in the water as often as you expect - they may have requested to participate in land-based activities instead.)

If your child prefers to focus only on surfing and wants a more one-on-one experience, you may be more interested in our surfing lessons. Our surf instructors love teaching kids and families to ride waves on Lake Michigan! Click here to learn more about surfing lessons.

Yes, all kids wear life jackets when stand-up paddleboarding, as required by the US Coast Guard. Life jackets are not required for water activities other than paddleboarding, but we are happy to keep your child in a life jacket for all water activities if you prefer. We have life jackets for campers to wear, but we encourage you to bring your own US Coast Guard-approved life jacket if your child has a life jacket they already are comfortable wearing.

You are more than welcome to drop your child off and come back at pick-up time – the kids are in good hands!

If you'd like to stay at the beach during camp, we encourage you to choose an area where you are not as visible to your child, and to talk with your child about staying with the instructors - not parents - during camp time. For safety reasons, our instructors need to keep the kids grouped together and accounted for at all times, and when a child leaves the group to see a parent, it can interfere with our head count.

Dress your kids for fun activities in the water and on the beach! We recommend they wear their usual beach attire, such as a swimsuit, boardshorts, rashguard, and a hat.

Plan to bring a small backpack or bag with anything else they might need, such as sunscreen, sunglasses, a towel, a filled water bottle, and a change of clothes (including a sweatshirt or jacket for cooler days).

We encourage you to bring a life jacket from home for your child to prevent sharing life jackets (write your name on the inside!).

We provide all the beach equipment - surfboards, skimboards, stand-up paddleboards, bodyboards, sandboards, and toys (balls, buckets, and shovels).

Yes, please pack a snack for your child for Monday through Thursday. Please avoid bringing any food containing nuts to help keep campers with allergies safe. (We'll treat the kids to a donut or pizza party on Friday to celebrate the end of the week!)

If you need to change your child's camp week, please use the unique link provided in your confirmation email to select a new session with availability. Sessions fill up quickly, so space may be limited as we get closer to your camp dates. If you need help rescheduling, feel free to email erin@thirdcoastsurfshop.com. Please note that while it is no problem to reschedule, there are no refunds on camps.

If you purchased Peek Protect coverage when booking your reservation, our partners at Peek Protect are happy to help you with a cancellation and refund of your protected amount. To submit your request, follow the link you received in your Peek Protect confirmation email (also available here) Please note that this request will need to be submitted at least 24 hours before your reservation start time.

For safety reasons, camp will be cancelled in the event of heavy rain or thunder/lightning. Parents will be notified of bad weather cancellations via email as soon as possible – as early as the evening before camp, but no later than 60 minutes prior to the start of camp (8:00 am EST for morning sessions; 12:00 pm EST for afternoon sessions).

Camp will take place as scheduled in the event of the following weather conditions:

• Cooler temperatures and/or light rain – plan to dress your child in layers as needed, and we’ll adjust activities accordingly.
• High winds and/or rough lake conditions – our instructors watch lake conditions closely, and activities will be planned with safety in mind. For example, when lake conditions are unsafe, children will enjoy non-water beach activities, such as sandboarding and games (capture the flag, kickball, freeze tag, etc.).