Surfing Waves

Hi everyone! At 33 years old, I just started surfing this summer and am completely hooked. I've wanted to surf since I was a teenager and grew up spending summers boogie boarding at the Jersey Shore, so I'm comfortable in the water. After a few lessons in NJ and Rockaway, I bought my own 9' foam board and have been having fun on that. I'm quite tall (5'11) and around 145 lbs, so I was recommended to get either a 9' or 9'6 to start with by one of my instructors.

Last weekend I went out with a friend to Rockaway and tried his 8'6 hard top board. I wasn't able to actually catch anything, but I was able to paddle into waves and stand up on the board with not much more difficulty than my foam board. At this point I still want to keep things simple and just have fun on smaller waves, but as my foam board is already showing some wear and tear, I'm wondering if anyone has thoughts or experience with these boards/brands (searched the forum and nothing came up):

- Salty Gypsy Dusty: not a fan of the name, but as it's a women-focused brand, it appealed to me https://shop.surfindustries.com/us/surf ... d/?ref=139

- Degree33 Ultimate Longboard: seems good for beginners like me, but also something that I could do more with when I (eventually) get better: https://www.degree33surfboards.com/coll ... -tint-poly

- Kona Cruiser: a brand local to Wildwood, NJ, which I like. Also a little less spendy than the other two: https://www.konasurfco.com/surf-shop/lo ... ellow-tint

Another thing to note is that I have a pretty small car (Prius), and found very quickly that the soft rack I bought for my board makes for a scary car ride going anything over 50 mph. We managed to fit my board IN the Prius on our last trip back from NJ > NYC, but it was an uncomfortable ride. Something even 6" shorter like an 8'6 would be able to fit more easily in my car, and would save me $$ on a roof rack...I would much rather be putting that $$ towards my next board.

Looking forward to any and all thoughts - thanks for reading!

I don't like any of the three boards as they are mostly Single fin Classic outline shapes and Poly/PU construction.

I would go for a more All-Around shape outline / rocker in a 2+1 fin set up. That is so you can run it as a Single, 2+1, Thruster or even Twin-stabi fun setups. Also look for Molded-Epoxy construction as you've been used to the carefree construction of sponge/foam being able to bang it anywhere without much worries. Molded-Epoxy is much more durable than traditional Poly/PU and has more float for a given dimension.

NSP has a 8'6" Elements Longboard that is 22 1/4 wide by 2 7/8 thick soft Squash tail that should fit in your Prius.

I just sold my 8'6 Element in NYC and moved to California. I surfed Rockaway for a few years. By end of Oct or after Halloween, you won't want to surf there. Not only the water is freezing but the rips are dangerous and will throw you onto the jetty. When there is swell, it's overhead and dumps you hard onto the sandbank. You only see shortboards or people with two pieces of longboard when there's overhead swell.

Rockaway is good during summer for beginners and go with what wkkk suggests. Epoxy board is good because they are kinda indestructible.

Torq is another cheap/mid priced brand to look at, does a longboard (just go for the standard longboard, not their more 'performance ones'). Its pretty similar to the NSP

The degree 33 board you linked above can be obtained in epoxy and is a reasonable board (although I'm personally not a fan of square tails, but thats a personal thing rather than saying no one should be). It does say it has more rocker than a normal LB, which usually is not a good thing but from BaNZ's comments, might be useful at Rockaway? Would still suggest the NSP or Torq are preferable.

You should be fine with an 8'6, and in any case we cant always get both the exact board we want and fit it in our car/house. So there is a trade off, but 8'6 isnt a huge trade off

BaNZ wrote:You only see shortboards or people with two pieces of longboard when there's overhead swell.

Hahah, point taken! I was planning on doing some fall surfing, but will hold off on winter surfing until I have much more experience.

Thanks so much for the thoughtful suggestions BaNZ, dtc, and waikikikichan! Both the NSP and Torq look great, hopefully I can even pick one up from a local shop.