Asurf instructor has an initial fee of $12 and charges $8 per hour for lessons.
explain how to determine what the y-intercept is and where it would be located on the graph.

Simple...

You have: The surf instructor has an initial fee of $12 anything after that is $8 per hour...

Using y=mx+b (Where m is the slope and b is the y-intercept)

y=8x+12

As we can see the y-intercept is located at (0,12)

If we wanted to actually see the graph then plug in some points for your graph-->>>

y=8(1)+12 (x=1)

y=8+12

y=20  

(1,20)

y=8(2)+12 (x=2)

y=16+12

y=28

(2,28)

y=8(3)+12 (x=3)

y=24+12

y=36

(3,36)

So on and so forth

Thus, your answer.

221,500 is the answer