Surfing Waves

So i'm going to be buying a longboard in the next few months, but I'm looking for some advice

I rode a 8' soft top for 6 months, then moved onto a 7' fish i've been riding for the past year and a half. I'm 195, 6'1", surf once - twice a week, been snowboarding consistently since like 6th grade (college senior), and would consider myself in fit condition (between lifting/running/snowboarding)
I travel around the New England area depending on the waves and generally hit up Rhode Island & Long Island (got a sweet hour & a half to the closest surf)

I'd like to learn how to noseride but I also enjoy the more progressive style as well? I'm pretty much clueless when it comes to different types of longboarding besides internet research. What are some solid recommendations for longboards and/or longboard dimensions you guys could suggest?

Noseriders have pretty specific design features that help out the nose riding, like they are designed to slow down, have big noses, soft rails (which aid 'suction' and hence grip to the wave) and so forth

Performance boards generally are designed to have the opposite effect ie go faster, narrower nose so you can whip it around, hard rails to aid turning etc

So you wont be able to get a noserider that allows 'performance' surfing or vice versa.

However, you can get a longboard that will allow performance (but less than a 'performance LB') and may allow noseriding in certain conditions (but less successfully than a specialist board). And, of course, you can turn a noserider and surf it 'normally', but its not going to be anything like a performance board.

So you can either go full bore with one style, or buy something with a bit of compromise for both. Most people tend to the compromise edging toward performance, rather than noseriding, because noseriding is a fairly limited activity (well, in my opinion!). But obviously its up to you.

A lot of longboarders thing 'performance longboarding' is a bit pointless anyway, as if you want performance use a short board and use a longboard for what it is designed for - long sweeping 'gentle' turns and none of the 'ticky tacky' shortboard stuff. Hence many longboards are not high performance, and may allow for the occasional nose ride if you practice enough and have the right conditions

Anyway, have a think about where you fall in the spectrum and we can probably help out a bit.

Simple rule of thumb here, learn to ride a longboard first , learn to cross step up and down the board , learn to trim and find the sweet spot forward that allows the board to accelerate, learn where the stall spots are and how to maximise your turns on the face. Getting that sort of skill will give you a comprehensive set of skill which when learned will lead you to nose riding as you will have the feel you need and also understand the dynamics of long boarding.
Waikikikichan has posted an excellent coaching link on nose riding. A longboard will certainly not limit your surfing experience it will enhance it.
As for progressive, being able to ride a longboard well will give you progressive moves as you try things out and add them to your toolbox.
Enjoy the learning but how much do you weigh, that's a factor too!
I weigh about 200lbs 6 foot I ride a custom board at 9ft and my "short" board is an 8ft special fish type rarely ride it at the moment. Enjoying length ATM is surf up to double overhead and down to 1ftish same board , just fin changes!
My recommendation is something about 9ft, fins systems, initially ride it as a single in small but shapely stuff , and have an occasional play day trying different fin configurations.

Alright awesome, I'm fairly certain I'll lean towards a compromise between the two, and just have fun/learn the mechanics of longboarding before I gear myself to a board specific towards either of the styles. Thanks for the recommendations jaffa, gonna start looking as soon as I have the money

Typical longboard dimensions : 9'0" x 22" x 3" 17-18" nose 15" tail. Play around with those numbers. I tend to ride 2 5/8" because I'm only 120 lbs. ( my contest board is 2 1/2" ) 19"+ noses tend to be Trash can lids and tend to not fit in beach break waves.

Rails: 50/50 rails is best for a heavy old school noserider log. But get modern longboard rails for now with hard edges at last 1/4 of the board

Nose Concave: I would not search/spec but if the used board you find has it, it won't hurt. But don't need to pay more to have it added.

Rockers and Concaves: that's what makes the shaper good. But it's to specialized / complicated to get into

Tail: Go with a squash. Easier to stall than a round pin.

Fin Set-up: go with 2+1 ( center box with fcs/futures side ). Start off with a more thruster set-up to just surf and turn. As you learn/begin to stall and walk, then move to single.

Please post up some boards you're looking at. Then we can give you some critics.

Personally, I would tell you to stay away from the progressive, performance boards. They are just harder to paddle, don't float well and don't catch waves as easy. All they do it turn easy or rather 'different". I have owned all type of long boards. I average about 200 pounds. 52yo. You should go more toward the big thick nose rider type board. My board is single fin box pig shape 10', 3.5 inchs thick, very heavy, some nose rocker and concave and a lot of tail rocker, 50/50 rails, plenty of mid rocker (clay Bennett tipparillo) 24" wide. It is a brown board with tiger stripes and wood fin you can see on clay Bennett surfboards facebook page. I can turn my nose riding log on a dime. It catch's waves really easy, nose rides easy. You can take your girlfriend with you on it (if she is skinny). The only thing Iv found about it that's a little scary is big steep Overhead takeoffs on close out hurricane waves but once you get use to it, no problem. Just don't let it hit you in the head if you go through the wash machine.