Surfset L.I. opens Bay Shore studio for more surfing-inspired workouts

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Surf’s up on West Main Street in downtown Bay Shore — all year long.

No, there’s no indoor wave pool being built. The popular Surfset Long Island classes that had been rotating through the studio at Drew Patrick Day Spa have moved to a permanent location across from St. Patrick’s R.C. Church.

Now Surfset Long Island’s owner, instructor and longtime track & field coach Mary Beth Lessing can offer dozens of classes each week to her growing legion of followers.

All in a beachy environment that she designed herself.

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Lessing started running classes at Drew Patrick, which also hosts yoga and other health and fitness classes, in September 2015.

“The people who came in absolutely loved it, and we’ve been developed a nice, loyal clientele, which has been great,” she told GreaterBayShore this week.

Lessing attributes the workout’s popularity in part to the Surfset board inventor’s memorable Season 4 appearance on the business startup show Shark Tank on ABC.

“And I think people are just getting tired of the same old workouts,” she said.

It works like this: You take a fitness class, but on a surf-inspired board that’s “designed to simulate the physical demands of surfing, without the ocean,” reads the Surfset Fitness website.

Lessing’s space, located at 166 West Main Street, is about 1,000 square feet with room enough for 8 to 10 Surfset-brand workout boards.

The front foyer looks like a Fire Island beach house. The workout room itself is lined with mirrors and a huge beach mural.

As of now, Lessing and her team of instructors offer nearly 30 classes a week. Of the classes that utilize the boards, many are different from one another and target different parts of the body in different ways, Lessing explained.

But there’s even Beach RX classes, “which is our version of P90X,” she said.

There’s also a Beach Barre class, which utilizes the ballet barre.

“But all the classes are board optional,” Lessing emphasizes. “People can throw the yoga mat on the floor and follow along. This is a happy place. I don’t care if people come in and just sit on the board the whole time; they got themselves out of the house and into the studio. Everyone needs to move a little bit.”

Lessing said she’s long imagined opening up her own fitness studio.

“I just felt it was time to spread my wings and take a chance, and when this space opened up I walked in and knew it was the perfect space … The location, the size, because wanted to keep it a small boutique fitness studio,” she said.

“I also wanted to keep the class sizes really manageable,” she added, “so people don’t feel like they’re on top of each other. I want to give that individual attention.

“It’s a space where people come in, feel comfortable and not overwhelmed, and have fun.”