From Minimal to shortboard.

[Lusi]

I learned to surf in a 7'3'' minimal, im looking for something faster and agile, still a bit of a beginner. The beach i go have small to medium waves 1-6ft, im 183cm high and weight 70kg. The board i want to buy is the LSD Chubby Chedda 6'4'' with 37L of volume, should i go for it or get a "proper" shortboard im just afraid about the lack of volume.

[drowningbitbybit]

6'4 at 37L is a proper shortboard - one with plenty of volume sure, but still going to be a big jump down from your 7'3. You definitely don't want to be going any shortier/skinnier than that. In fact, if you're still a beginner, I'd go slightly larger - around the 6'6 x 21 x 2 3/4 mark with a wide template. It will still be much more agile than your mini-mal, but less of a traumatic transition.

BUT... no-one ever gains new skills by getting a shorter board. Make sure you really have mastered the basics before changing

[Lusi]

I have learned well the basics and feel like i need something more challenging and fast on the wave so i can start get better at turning and eventually learn some manoeuvres anyway im gonna keep my minimal i can always go back and master something i need.

[oldmansurfer]

That's good to keep the mini. Boards all have plusses an minuses. A shorter board may be easier to turn but harder to catch waves with and it could be both harder to turn and harder to catch waves for a beginner. When the pros want a bigger board or smaller board they are generally talking an inch or two difference so 11 inches will be a big change and at least if you get discouraged you can go back and work on your skills on the mini for a while more but you may not catch any waves your first time or two out with the shorter board. Also I think for most of us the basics means a bottom turn a top turn and a cutback

[Big H]

I would think something like this would be what you were looking for:

http://fourthsurfboards.com/portfolio/reload/

Or this

http://store.magicseaweed.com/Fourth-Ch ... Item/2056/