socal46,
Winter is not a difficult time to surf in California. It's simply the best time!! (yes, I use a 9ft longboard up and down the entire coast -- Winter included. The colder the water is, the better it is. Best Winter day: Caspar Creek in Mendocino County on Christmas day; after 30 minutes in the water you can't feel your feet! HB is much warmer.)
Quote from another respected website: "Winter provides cool to cold water, bigger, more consistant surf and fewer weirdos, but still a whole lot of surfers. Offshore winds from the east and/or northeast can turn Huntington into a magazine quality wave."
Have you discovered this webcam at the HB pier?
http://www.surfermag.com/surf-cams/To answer part of your question: No, it's not hard to use a longboard at HB in Winter.
You keep asking all these questions about HB. Are you really surfing or just thinking about it? You just need to surf, dude! By the way, go to the Frog House Surf shop in nearby Newport Beach with some of these questions. You need to develop a local network.