recommend a board?

[surfnskate]

I'm 5'6, 150lbs, above average fitness, female. However, I'm pushing 40 so I'm no spring chicken either. Intermediate level (can turn, cut back, pump for speed, have managed the occasional floater, nothing radical). I've been transitioning from long-board to short board.

I'm looking to progress on a short board for chest to head high +, pitchy, steep waves. Not hollow - yet!

For knee high to chest high mush, I mostly ride my 5'11 potato 47ltrs.

For overhead waves that have some power and steepness, I ride my 7'5 PU fun, 20.5 wide, pointed nose, thruster squash tail. My 7'5 is more like my all arounder... I can surf it on anything. But it's not my ideal for the overheads.

The boards have too much volume for me now as well.

I'm looking for suggestions on a hybrid performance board - something I can take out from chest high to overhead, with pitch and late take-offs, that's a bit more maneuverable than my 7'5 fun and less volume and less length. I realize there's a ton of boards out there, and choosing a board is highly individual, but if you have any suggestions, around shapes and technology to look for based on my description, it's a start. I ride mostly PUs, but have recently started to prefer epoxy and lighter boards.

Thanks!

[dtc]

mmm, a bit of dilemma - the hybrid boards are more designed for us large guys, not the lighter weight female surfers. Obviously the easiest choice, if possibly the most expensive, is to go to a shaper and get a board maybe 6ft8 (ish!) but have it a bit thinner than standard, to reduce the volume to allow for your weight.

Where are you based?

One of the smaller versions, say 6ft6, of a hybrid boards might be worth looking at - such as the Firewire Dominator (the Addvance may still be too big), maybe a McCoy nugget if you are that way inclined, a board like Grant Millers waterskate or V-skate (he is an Australia shaper but has a detailed website that might push your thoughts one way or another) or the GSI superfish. All of these are going to be around 40L volume or so with fairly flat rocker; the dominator is probably the 'highest' performance but isn't really high performance (relatively speaking)

A more high performance board could be a JS Blak Box or a Chill Spawn or even a hypto krypto if you want to go shorter. Still retaining a bit of volume and a bit of 'assistance' through a slightly wider/thicker board

Ah, just thinking about it shows how many possibilities there are! All I can really suggest is that you look at a bunch of different boards and think about what you want and winnow them down. For the larger waves you describe, you can probably get away with a bit more nose rocker and a bit narrower than you are used to. Some people like wider noses and some wider tails...I would stick with a thruster. None of that offers much help!

A website that might get you started is http://www.boardcave.com.au/ , where you can plug in your details and what you are looking for and it will suggest a bunch of boards. You may not have access to the exact boards where you live, but you can get a feel for the style of boards that you think will work for you and then look for similar versions available locally.

[Krazygatr1]

The above info is pretty good. You may want to change your fins to allow for the steeper waves. Try a fin with more depth and more sweep. That should help with the grab.