Surfing Waves

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 3:53 pm**

Hi all,

I'm 55 years old and haven't surfed in about 40 years. I'm looking forward to doing it again. I'm 5'9" and weigh about 185 lbs. I live in San Antonio and would be making regular trips to Corpus Christi for surfing.

I'm ready to buy a used board now and I'm trying to decide between two of them. The first is a fish design, 6'3" x 19-1/2" x 2-1/2" with a small swallow tail. The second is a shortboard, 7'0" with a little extra width toward the nose and a little extra thickness and a squash tail. (I don't know the exact dimensions of the board).

I'm leaning toward the 7 footer (I have lots of muscle memory yet as far as surfing goes and used to ride a short skinny board in my youth). I would be surfing though, in small, sometimes mushy surf as it is in the Gulf .

Will the shortboard catch the smaller waves ok? I'm told it's a good floater and paddler, or should I go with the fish?

Many, many thanks for ANY and all replies and advice.

Mods please move this to the right forum. Thanks.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:51 pm**

Welcome back, where have you been?

Right, the first one isn't a fish - its a shortboard that happens to have a swallowtail. It won't have the bouyancy or the wave catching ability of a fish, so I'd forget that one.

The 7' is a funboard and would be great for small waves and for someone getting back into it. I'd definitely go with this one.

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2011 10:07 pm**

Muchas gracias mi amigo!

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2011 6:03 am**

Hi tygr1, welcome to Surfing Waves. 40 years, that's some time out. Great that you are getting back into the water. Let us know how you get on.
I'm with dbbb, small mushy Gulf Coast, go with the funboard.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2011 7:32 am**

+2 funboard.

KS

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2011 10:49 pm**

How about a 6'11" x 20-1\4" x 2.68" Rusty T2 Tuflite? It's supposed to be good and floaty and catches waves easy.

Any opinions?

Posted: **Wed Aug 24, 2011 12:15 am**

tygr1 wrote:How about a 6'11" x 20-1\4" x 2.68" Rusty T2 Tuflite? It's supposed to be good and floaty and catches waves easy.

Any opinions?

I would say bigger is better at this stage, if you find it too easy you can always move down. Better than the other way around at least!

Posted: **Fri Aug 26, 2011 10:33 pm**

The second board has a lot of nose kick or rocker. Is that bad?

Posted: **Sat Sep 03, 2011 12:08 am**

Well, thanks for the tips and the encouragement. I bought the bigger board. Is it really considered a fun board?

Surfing Waves

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Which one would work best for me?

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