drowningbitbybit wrote:The big-brand pop-outs are not the most sophisticated high-performance boards in the world, but that's because they're not supposed to be. They're perfect for newbies (or indeed more experienced surfers) and are hard as nails. Sure, they're not the coolest board in the line-up, but as you said - better to be ripping on a kook's board than catching nothing on a pro's board.
The quality of pop-outs does vary, but the well-known manufacturers such as BIC and NSP are perfectly reliable.
Its probably true that when 'pop outs' emerged 15 years or so ago, they weren't always the best quality. They were using a fairly new manufacturing process and materials and things sometimes didn't work out. Nowadays they are much more sophisticated - for sure there are boards made to a price with limited quality control, but you can plug designs into a machine and have the boards come out just as designed, so even for these cheap ones its not so much the design or shape that is a problem anymore, its just the quality of materials. Still, there is a reason why 'good' surfers don't surf these cheap boards and its not because of their reputation, its because their designs are pretty basic. They do the job well for a beginners
I suggest, as others have, that you stick with a 'fun board' (mini mal) rather than a hybrid for now. Hybrids are harder to surf, less stable and you are a fairly big guy. The problem you might have is finding one that is 7ft - a lot of boards are 7ft2 and then the next size down is 6-10 or 6-8
Anyway, a few people have a Torq funboard and rate them highly - do a search on the forum. They are pretty cheap, relatively speaking of course - if you can squish in the 7-2 then that is solid choice. NSPs are also excellent nowdays, but a bit more expensive.
A great board for you would be the 6-10 walden mini mega magic, but they are very expensive for an off the rack board. A board I know nothing about other than what I have read on its (as usual self promoting) website, but which could be a good board for you (now and given your future intentions) is the Maluku Flying Frog. Still not the cheapest - for those prices you can probably get a custom build. Or take a punt on something like this
http://www.gumtree.com/p/surfboards-win ... 1124816227 (ok, based on my extremely rudimentary knowledge of UK geography, that may not be particularly close to you)
If you did want to go more hybrid, then the usual recommendations are the 7S fish or the firewire Addvance (the 6-10 is probably pretty good) or something that looks like one of those boards - there are many.
in any case, I would stick with a board that is at least 21 inches wide and probably 2 3/4 inches thick and, of course, as long as possible.
You may only surf this board for 12 - 18 months because wanting something shorter or narrower or just different; but it is a vital 12 - 18 months and trying to skip this step by going shorter or narrower today isn't a quicker way to achieve your shortboarding goal. Its like going from year 7 maths to year 10 (or first form to 4thform in UK talk...). Eventually you might understand it, but it may prove to be too hard without an awful lot of work; or it may take you a lot longer to learn than if you just learnt slowly but steadily.
Then again, you may realise you love mid lengths and stay with them forever.
