Accusations fly in Ballito surf lessons dispute

A disagreement over surf lessons has led to flaring tempers and back-and-forth allegations between a group of holidaymakers and the owners of a beach shop in the Ballito village.

The McMurtrie family is on holiday in Ballito from Limpopo and booked surf lessons with the Ballito Beach Surf Store in Sandra Road for two people for last Friday.

Due to poor weather conditions, the lesson was postponed to Monday.

According to the McMurtrie family the agreement was to pay R250 per hour for the hire of the surfboards for the lessons.

They told The Courier that they paid R1 000 up front for the hire of two surfboards for two hours. The lessons were to be ‘free’ with the hire of the boards. There was no mention of any additional costs.

“When we got to the store on Monday we were told we had to pay an additional R250 per hour per person for the hire of rash vests to use during the lessons – charges we were told nothing about when making the original booking,” said Gemma McMurtrie.

Disappointed, she and her boyfriend Marc van Zyl decided they could no longer afford the lesson and asked for a refund.

“The owners of the store became very aggressive and refused, so I called my dad to come help us.”

Gemma’s father Allan was greatly disturbed by the ensuing argument saying the men were unnecessarily unpleasant.

“The owner’s son even started shouting ‘hit me! hit me!’ as though to tempt us to get into a physical tussle. They even brought up religion at one point,” Allan said.

According to the McMurtries they eventually received R750 back from their original R1000 after threatening to call the police and The Courier.

However, store owner Raymond Corazzo and his son, Clayton, deny these allegations.

The Corazzos told The Courier that it was the McMurtries who became aggressive, saying that they felt intimidated by Allan as he is “a big six foot six hunter.”

“I pointed to a picture of Jesus we have in the shop and said we are Christians and just want to resolve this peacefully,” said Clayton, “Then he (Allan) said ‘bugger your religion’.”

The Corazzos also claim that the McMurtries left the store without returning one of the rash vests worth R900.

The McMurtries, in turn, deny these allegations.

“We feel that they are intentionally misleading people about the added, hidden costs for surfing lessons,” said McMurtrie.

Raymond Corazzo however, maintains that they charge very reasonable rates and often carry on lessons over and above the times agreed upon.

“We often continue lessons over the hour that the surfboards have been rented for at no extra cost – in fact, the actual lesson itself is free while you pay to rent the board. Where else are you going to get a deal like that?”

Since speaking with both the McMurtries and the Corazzos The Courier has been contacted by other people who had surf lessons with the Ballito Beach Surf Store.

Raymond asked another holidaymaker from Limpopo, Marize de Klerk to call us and she said she had a fantastic experience and really enjoyed her lessons with the Corazzos.

Meanwhile another aspiring surfer – who did not wish to be named but whose identity is known to The Courier – complained that she did not receive the lesson she had paid for and that Raymond was aggressive when she asked for a refund.

“I have the threatening voice notes from Raymond where he says ‘if you play with fire you are going to be burnt’,” said the Durban resident.

“He even started harassing me at my place of work until I got the police involved.”

>>  Expect to find the latest trends in Health, Wellness and Beauty in Ballito.

>> Meet the top players in the North Coast property industry. See our Property People feature.

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