Lee Wood’s ascent from Surf Ops to head honcho has been a very organic progression. Skills learned in ocean-focused hospitality translate quite well to the wave pool world. Lee spent 20-plus years in the British Isles surf scene, running a surf tour business through Ireland. At that job, he had to do a lot of the work like bookings, accommodations, and hospitality – basically organizing all the minutiae, but most of all just making sure people have a good time. His new role, replacing Joe Frankel as Managing Director (CEO if you will) at Lost Shore taps those skills for the everyday world of an inland surf resort. He’s been here in Edinburgh since day one, hiring the entire ops team in a very short window of time. To illustrate Lee’s operations prowess, the majority of those hires remain at the surf park today.
We spoke with Lee to find out where his new duties separate from his old ones and what’s on tap for Lost Shore in 2026.
All right, Lee, since we last talked, you’ve had a role change. What do you do now? What is your title?
So now I’m Managing Director.
What does that mean?
That’s a good question. I ask myself that some days too. I started off in surf operations, as you might remember from earlier conversations. I set up the team there and, through earlier experience, kept putting my hand up to help in other departments and shape them. That progressed into looking after retail, visitor experience, and food and beverage, all areas I had experience in. The last parts of the business I didn’t oversee were accommodation and maintenance. So now, I’m essentially in charge of the Lost Shore Surf Resort and the overall operations of the business. I say “in charge,” but with such a big team, you rely heavily on everyone doing their jobs well. The responsibility stops with me, but execution depends on the team.
It seems like you have a great team here. Can you give me an example of a “the buck stops here” decision you’ve had to make since taking on the role?
Every day in this business involves a lot of decisions. Previously, many operational decisions already came through me, but now the role has expanded into broader site strategy and the future of the business. That includes reviewing financials, shaping seasonal operations, resourcing teams across departments, and making maintenance decisions. I’m also now involved in accommodation, which I’m passionate about. We’ve set a new direction and strategy, deciding who we partner with, how we position and price, and how we work with platforms like Booking.com and Airbnb, as well as new OTAs to increase occupancy. So yes, a lot of decisions now come through me.
Has there been a moment when you made a decision and immediately saw a positive result?
Yes, quite a few.
Explain
Coming out of winter, you know visitor numbers will be lower, so decisions focus on efficiency, paring things back to stay lean. For example, taking some accommodation units offline, draining them, turning off heating, the simple but impactful cost-saving decisions given energy prices. Then there are improvements like reviewing listings, updating photography, refining descriptions, and adjusting pricing strategies. We also created attractive off-season offers, like surf-and-stay packages. One example I’m proud of is forming small project teams to tackle short-term challenges. For instance, if occupancy looked low for a month, we’d bring together people from housekeeping, maintenance, wellness, anyone with capacity, to solve it. We created what we called an “accommodation hit team” to address winter occupancy. They worked on reshoots, customer journey improvements, website flow, and welcome packs. We saw occupancy increase from around 30% to 50% in a month. Those kinds of wins are really satisfying.
That sounds similar to your previous experience running a surf business in Ireland. Were you working with platforms like Airbnb there too?
Yes. Narosa is my business in Ireland, which I run with Duncan Halliday. We started with a surf school, then added retail, accommodation, a juice and coffee bar, and later expanded to a second location with a larger café, co-working space, and workshop. We’ve been operating accommodation there for about eight or nine years. While it’s smaller, just six units versus over fifty here, the patterns are the same. You need strong design, effective OTA usage, and a great guest experience. So it’s similar, just on a different scale.
Let’s talk about your team. How important are they, and how do you work with them?
The team is everything. I work most closely with department heads across revenue-generating areas like accommodation, food and beverage, surf, wellness, and retail. Then we have support teams like HR and finance.
We also have a visitor experience team that handles communications and continuously improves the guest journey. I try to give department heads autonomy so they can bring their own ideas and style. My role is to guide and support, especially where I have more experience, and help avoid potential pitfalls. For example, the surf operations team manages wave settings, timetables, staffing, and training—they’re highly capable and largely self-sufficient.
In newer areas like accommodation, I’ve been more hands-on, setting up structure and strategy since we’ve never had a dedicated head of accommodation before. My goal is to build strong teams and then let them run, stepping in when needed.
Have there been challenges in building that structure?
Yes, especially early on. In my first six months, I couldn’t leave the site much because surf operations needed close attention. Things can go wrong quickly if systems aren’t solid. But now the operation is stable. I can take a day off and trust the team completely, as they’re very capable, and even department heads rely on strong senior staff beneath them. That’s been a big shift.
What has surprised you about this new role?
One of the best things has been seeing the team thrive without me being involved in every operational detail. The role now includes working with shareholders, the board, and investors, which takes a significant amount of time.
While I sometimes miss being on the ground more, I’m now focused on future-facing strategy. The team has handled winter challenges really well, which is always a tough period in this industry. Now, as we move into spring and summer, bookings are strong, and I’m excited to see how the team performs in their second full year with the experience they’ve gained. I’m very optimistic.
Once the foundation is solid, it becomes exciting, as teams can start innovating, improving the customer experience, and adding new elements. In this industry, you can’t stand still. Returning customers should feel like the experience is better every time with better coaching, improved facilities, new offerings, faster service, updated menus, new retail partnerships, and events. We want customers to feel that constant evolution.
It sounds like you really get to see those changes come to life.
Exactly. It’s exciting to watch it all develop.
