Surfing Waves

Hi Guys,

Looking to buy my 2nd board Im 6'4 220lbs so im pretty heavy allthough im in good shape. My first board was a 7'10 bic mini mal found this ok for small clean surf however whenever the surf got bigger than 4ft i found it impossible to get out past the break as the board was so big. When i did get out there it took me half the day and by that time im exhausted and as a result was not able to get enough speed paddling to catch any waves
Im from South Wales so usual head to the Gower but also make trips to Newquay. Have been to Hossegor and am currently planning another trip there.
Ablity wise im able to get up and turn and have been surfing for around 5 years. It has not been a solid 5 years as I go through phases mostly due to injuries I pick up in other sports preventing me surfing
Il probably be going out weekly through the winter as long as theres surf as well as a few trips to Newquay and France.
I want to progress from the Mal and go shorter however i am aware that because of height/weight I wont be able to go too short. Im thinking 7'2 shortboard with plenty of volume? This is just me guessing though
I will be making a trip to a local shaper but im about 2 months off from affording one so I dont realy want to waste his time at the moment. Im impatient and want to look around alot before then so would just like some opinions on what I should be looking for.
Cheers

Hey dude, im 6'3 and around 90kg and i started on a 6'6 x 19 (and bit) x 2 1/3 and although it has taken me almost a year to get used to it (catch waves - biggest issue when first starting), i am now standing up consistently and starting to get bottom turns. But any shorter unless it a fish possibly would be impossible. So you could probably go a little bit shorter than a 7'2 if you wanted to