Surfing Waves

I have a little snowboarding experience (been up there 3 times) and i've been told surfing and snowboarding are similar. I don't know much about surfboards, but i've been looking around and funboards seem like a good starting point. i know having a foam longboard would be the best, but my uncle has a 9'1 longboard already and i could just grab that if i get thrashed. i was just wondering what dimensions would be good for my body type. I'm a tall and slim guy 6'1 155 pounds. so far, im thinking a board 7'8"-7'10" tall, 21 inches wide, and around 3 inches thick. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

gooddeal241 wrote:I've been told surfing and snowboarding are similar....I'm a tall and slim guy 6'1 155 pounds. so far, im thinking a board 7'8"-7'10" tall, 21 inches wide, and around 3 inches thick.

Surfing and snowboarding may be similar, but learning to surf isnt.
99% of it is learning how to paddle, catch waves, get to where the waves are etc etc. The whole standy uppy thing is right at the end.

But your board plan isnt too bad. I'd go with borrowing the longboard for a couple of sessions, and then you'll be okay to try a funboard.
At 6'2 you'll be needing the 7'10 at first. 3" may be a bit too thick for a funboard - you'd be better off getting enough experience on the longboard to go 2.5-2.75"

gooddeal,
use the 9ft 1in board.
Billie

Go with the longboard untill you can catch the waves and stand up, then go with a nice 7'6" if it is ging to be 3 inches thick, or a 7'8"/10" if it is gouing to be 2.5" thick. Or you can save some money and keep with the longboard for a while, and then move down to a 7'2" or something.
The best thing is to go learn on the longboard, and then go ask your local shaper to go out in the ocean with you, and see what you need, tell him every little detail about your surfing, and then ask him to shape a board for you, but be sure to first learn to go down the line consistantly and have your bottom turn on lock before you go to him, and then also it might be a good idea to first get a secound hand minimal and start doing some small turns on it, and tehn go see your shaper, boards can be coustly, and you don't want to spend $400 every 2 months do you?

The Fafanator wrote:Go with the longboard untill you can catch the waves and stand up, then go with a nice 7'6" if it is ging to be 3 inches thick, or a 7'8"/10" if it is gouing to be 2.5" thick. Or you can save some money and keep with the longboard for a while, and then move down to a 7'2" or something.
The best thing is to go learn on the longboard, and then go ask your local shaper to go out in the ocean with you, and see what you need, tell him every little detail about your surfing, and then ask him to shape a board for you, but be sure to first learn to go down the line consistantly and have your bottom turn on lock before you go to him, and then also it might be a good idea to first get a secound hand minimal and start doing some small turns on it, and tehn go see your shaper, boards can be coustly, and you don't want to spend $400 every 2 months do you?

please just lay off a bit

The Fafanator wrote:Go with the longboard untill you can catch the waves and stand up, then go with a nice 7'6" if it is ging to be 3 inches thick, or a 7'8"/10" if it is gouing to be 2.5" thick. Or you can save some money and keep with the longboard for a while, and then move down to a 7'2" or something.
The best thing is to go learn on the longboard, and then go ask your local shaper to go out in the ocean with you, and see what you need, tell him every little detail about your surfing, and then ask him to shape a board for you, but be sure to first learn to go down the line consistantly and have your bottom turn on lock before you go to him, and then also it might be a good idea to first get a secound hand minimal and start doing some small turns on it, and tehn go see your shaper, boards can be coustly, and you don't want to spend $400 every 2 months do you?

Shut the f*ck up.


(Sorry SP, but do we have to put up with this idiot giving out his ignorant bullsh*t on every thread?)

Couldn't agree more!!

thanks for the suggestions. i'm going to use that longboard for a while to get my footing and then switch to a 7'10 funboard when im a little more confident with my technique. i looked around and found some pretty good used ones for sale already. just another quick question though, what kind of tail/fins should i look for? or does that not matter at the moment?

Three fins is probably the easiest, but until you are riding properly, it doesn't make a whole lof of difference. Generally, 3 fin boards turn tighter than a single fin, but a single fin gives you more drive and carve through turns. You kind of need to keep a 3 fin board moving around to get speed, where a single fin is more cruisey.

Tail shapes make bugger all difference IMO. They're just a very noticeable design element. If it comes down to it, a square/squash tail would be more stable in the whitewater than a pin/rounded pin, but tail shape only really starts to make a difference in bigger/faster waves.

gooddeal,
I use three fins on my 9-foot board. Given my ability, it doesn't really matter whether there are fins on the board or not!