Am I going too short too fast?

[xerces]

I started surfing in late december 2023 and i started off by borrowing my mates 6'6 foamie, after about 2 weeks of crap progression as in not not being able to standup or anything he needed his board back and gave me his 6'0 softtop thruster.

So timeskip 3 months to late march and im standing up, being on the green every wave unless i kook it because im messing around too much, I catch almost every wave i paddle for, pumping pretty well and did a few wacky floaters but never tried to get good at them, and even some small top turns if its a slower wave. but i still cant do any harder turns on the 6'0 foamie and i decide that its because the boards too heavy to move so i borrow my mates 6'0 high performance fiberglass board to mess around with and i was instantly able to tell that im not capable of riding a high performance board yet even now and thats not what im implying. after 2 days on the fiberglass board (6'1) i could do a pretty bad cutback on my 2nd day and im still on the green almost every wave but then i have to give the board back.

So now after another month i decided im sick of the foam board being too heavy to duckdive so i go and buy a 6'0 Rusty Smoothie after talking to the people at the local board store about it. Every single person i talk to says its a xxxxx decision and im wasting my time and money even though i surfed fine on it on my first sesh with it.

Should i listen to the people around me or keep trying to progress as fast as ive been. I surf 2-4ft waves that usually go for a while (pointbreak & shorebreak) & im 5'8 60kg, 15yo

[oldmansurfer]

It's difficult to see how well you are doing over the internet. One of the problems encountered while learning to surf is doing something wrong for a while because it seems to work. Beginners are often unaware they aren't surfing like others and will repeatedly do something wrong which the requires more training to correct that then it would have to do it right from the beginning. A video of a surf session might tell us more what you are actually doing than words over the internet. But you are young and healthy so that's a plus. If you really have no problems using the board you are using then there's no reason to change. But buying a board just so you can duckdive it is rarely the right decision, could be right for you but it seems on the average beginner surfers should learn other methods of getting through the waves first. Most important is that you can catch waves with the board since if you aren't catching waves you aren't learning much about surfing. There are others who hopefully can offer more advice

[waikikikichan]

Every single person i talk to says its a xxxxx decision and im wasting my time and money even though i surfed fine on it on my first sesh with it.

Every single person is saying buying that Rusty Smoothie was a "stupid" decision because they think it's too small for you OR too big for you ?

[Finkey]

The best advice anyone ever gave me is go where the good waves break. You may catch some heat from the locals but do your best to follow the rules, be patient and you will get some leftovers. You may even make a friend who lets you try some different equipment. I grew up dirt poor riding the bus a few hours to the beach and riding my dad’s old boards from the 80s. Now I travel the world and surf waves I could never imagine myself surfing back when I was 15. If you want to compete you are still young enough but if you’re just messing around remember the skills you learn today will stay with you so put in that extra work because it pays off. Get a performance shape as soon as possible and learn to rip it