Hello all. Im bout 5'11 140 and standup bodyboard all the time but want to start surfing. I can stand on a bodyboard so I dont think ill have trouble on a short board but then again Ive never surfed so I dont know.. Just wondering what all reccomend on size height and width and shape of the board I should get.. Im pretty much gonna be riding the giant swells bethany and fenwick spit at me. (really ill probably stick to bbing and skimmin on small days and only surf on the 3 half-decent sized days a year)
Well, I was a hard head when i was younger and my first board was a fry fish 5' 10". Yes it was difficult to learn on. Wanted to give up sometimes. Glad i didn't....I would say even tho you can stand on a BB. I would still get something intermediate. something wide, thick and a decent length. I'm not talking about a foamy either. You can get yourself a fairly decent shortboard with those dimesions. And then you can trade that in once you get that board dialed for another. Learning to surf on the wrong board can just lead to failure.
yeah ive been talking around with friends also they all been sayin definately no foam board, wide is good, also ive heard fish shaped boards with rounded noses are better for the delmarva area... is that true? also some people are telling me get a board my height others are saying get atleast a board 6'6 what you guys think?
not to sure about the Delmarva area...maybe someone will chime in. But as far as the board that's what i learned on a 5' 10" fry fish old school. twin fin glassed in. (it was tough at the beginning) I think if your standing up on a BB than go for it. But there used to be a common rule of 6" above your height when starting then going shorter as you progress.
I agree with the at least 6'6" call, unless you are seriously considering a fish, than you could go a little smaller. The key, by far is width. I learned to surf on a 7'0" performance Kechele board. After that I did a big jump to 6'2". Although I could surf great on the 7' board I couldn't, for the life of me, get decent on the 6'. It wasn't until I got another, cheap used, shoartboard that I started to get better on a shorty. Although the used board wasn't much longer or thicker than the other 6', that I grew to hate because I couldn't get better on it, it was significantly wider. This made all the difference, in just a few waves I was up and pretty much down the line. After a couple of sessions on it I switched back to my thinner shorty and did just fine. If you are confident in your ability, and are considering a short board, keep that in mind. Its not so much the length, but width of a shortboard that could make all the difference.
at yor size, and already standing up on BB, no need to go longer than 6'4" but it really doesn't matter for you first board. Your just gonna destroy it on the bethany sand bars anyway... width is the key- go at least 19.5" inches with a wide nose. Round nose fish shapes are excellent. Also where and when you'll be surfing is important. If your serious about surfing in bethany and fenwick, those spots are both pretty steep and dumpy so the small board will be fine. If you plan to screw around with north side indian river inlet a lot, then get a longer board.
Nothing will progress your surfing more than a funboard or longboard. It is a magnified surfing practice. But if you are over eager, the egg is the best board design ever introduced. it turns great yet is stable. It handles 3ft -10ft depending on the board length. It is a good starter and finisher. I couldn't get rid of mine. i now own 3. fishes are great as well, but i'd wait until you're turning, or cutting your turns. definately don't go less than 6-4. the 6-6 advice is pretty solid on the safer side. no less than 2.5 in thickness will help. Just my input. good luck
my first board was a 6'4 nsp fish...economic, bullet proof, and floated like a boat. i thought it was a great beginner board, being that i was also around your dimensions when i started. after that i moved to a 6'2 that was about 19.5 wide. i'm now at a 5'11 that's 18.25 i guess the point here is progression. but if you're aiming to eventually be on a small, thin shortboard in the end, i would say start no higher than a 6'4 or 6'6
alright thanks for the help guys.. glad i got some knowledge before going in blind to a surfshop or to someone and have em sell me some half an inch thick foam board
Dingshapes, Don't take this wrong...i respect your opinion. You obvioulsy know what your talking about. I wonder about the part I quoted though...When i started in the 1980s and watching kids learn until the late 1990s nobody really even thought of longboards, and funshapes didn't exist. So we learned on fat old 80's "thrusters" or old short thick boards from the 70's. Then the longboard trend hit in like 1998, and you had 120 pound kids catching hundreds of knee high waves on their dad's 9'6", and then their own. I've watched a lot of kids who's surfing actually seem like they got stunted by that approach...Can't handle a hollow wave over 4 foot because they were so busy catching a million indean river waves on the log, and have to re-adjust when they realize what else is out there. I'm not sure they end up ahead of the kid with the old 6'6"beater looking for steep waves, since thats all you could catch on it.
First board My first board was a 6'7 BIC board and it was the easiest board to learn how to ride on. It was big enough for me to learn on yet still able to catch nice quick waves.
