Surfing Waves

Hi guys,

I have been surfing for about 3 years, starting on a high volume soft top as everyone suggest. I eventually moved on to fiberglass board and never use my old soft top. I feel like it is not only a waste of money, but also, an unnecessary use of materials.

I was wondering if you were to re-learn surfing, would you consider a long term rental of a soft top board for the initial learning period of several months (assuming it was cheaper than buying a board)?

Thanks.

Of course, I've lost count on how much money I spent trying to learn on a soft top. Must be several hundred dollars.

Softboards for learners has really only become widespread in the last 5-7 years or so. Before then only surf schools used softboards, and that was because you had a crowd of people who couldnt control the board surfing close to each other. So they were designed to reduce injuries.

Nowadays softboards are better quality; but there is no actual reason to learn on them (beyond maybe a handful of initial tries).

In any case, personally I would just buy reasonable quality second hand board as soon as I knew surfing was something I wanted to pursue - if a softboard, with the aim of re-selling in a year or two; or just a standard longboard that you will probably keep for 10 years. Most boards you can sell for at least 50% of your purchase price (or more if you bought them second hand) so it wouldnt take many board rentals until you exceeded the likely cost of buying a board

Obviously not everyone can store or transport their own board, but if you want to continue surfing then that is something you need to do sooner or later so why not sort it out sooner?

As an aside - why not sell your soft top? Or just give it away to someone.