Surfing Waves

heya. I am fairly new to surfing & I use to ride a 6'6-20-29/16, thruster, but it snapped recently. I found it pretty easy to ride and get up on. I have since bought a second hand 6'3 thruster and it is considerably thinner on the rails and narrow width wise. Im 6'3 and weigh around 83kgs. I took it out for a surf the other day, and found it extremely slower and harder to get onto waves. Have I bought a stupid buy or should i just be able to adapt to it?

Sounds like the new board has a lot less volume.

Hey '09 - post up the thickness and width so we can advise you better.

It does sound like you will have to raise your game a bit on the new board though - catching waves with one or two strokes instead of the dozens you maybe used to take.

My avatar board is 6’2” x 19 ¾ by 2 I think – it’s a board for surfing and not a plonkie around in the sea board.

This sounds like the new board you have.

Persevere for a bit, or to keep the stoke go a bit thicker ?

Let us know dude.

83kg = 182lbs - I weigh between 190 - 200lbs depending on lifestyle, go-outs, excercise...

All my shortboards are 2 1/2 inches thick. About 4 years ago I had a 6'3" made 2 3/8" thick and boy I felt the difference. I could ride it, no problem, and maybe if I had stuck to it I would have gotten used to it, but my wave count went down as did my enjoyment. That is when I decided that I had reached my plateau on ability and equipment. Since then I have gotten eveything slightly thicker and been in love with it.

If you want a recommendation, I had a board shaped like the Xanady Rocky, tick to rails but hard rails, love the glide, it's both an awesome wave catcher and great performer. They did not come in a 6'3" so I had a local shaper make it for me, but totally dig it.

thanks for the help. the dimension is 6'3x18.1/4 by 2. 9/16. I did notice that it took 3 real powerful strokes to get onto a wave instead of the many less powerful ones i used with the 6'6er.

That avatar sounds more or less the same except its and inch and a bit wider, and less thick.

thanks mathteacher, i will have a look into it. the only reason why i bought this board so haphazardly was because i snapped that 6'6er in the surf the other day, and was sooo keen to get back out there. but as soon as i took it out, I immediately felt the the huge contrast between both boards.. might go out with it a couple more times and if I get no joy, I will try and sell it and wait for something else