Surfing Waves

Hi all,

So a friend of my dad had a spare board lying around, a really small shortboard. He gave it to me, so now I have a board that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to even ride.

I'm 5'10", 160lbs, and I'm pretty competent on my 7'2" funboard. I like the thing a lot.

This new board is a Town & Country, an old school thruster. It's 6'0" by 19.5" by 2 5/16". It's practically a potato chip.

I understand with the amount I surf (maybe 50 days a year) I probably won't ever be shredding on a board this small. As it is, I can pop up on it and have a wobbly ride straight in on maybe 1/6 of the waves I go for. It's a fun challenge.

My question is this: should I even try on this board? Do people my size ride boards this small at any skill level, or is it a hopeless endeavor for me?

It's not unreasonably small, although if you only surf 50 days a year then you'd probably be better off staying on your 7'2. Plenty of people bigger than you ride boards of that size, but I'd learn to ride your 7'2 well before changing.

Give it a go, what do you have to lose?

That said, at 50 days per year you may want to maximise your surfing as much as possible rather than spend time missing out on lots of waves. However, even then, given that you have a free board, why not use it every 5th surf or something until you decide its pointless or you get good at it