Should I transition back to a 'real' shortboard?

[canadiangirl]

Hi all,

I have a somewhat interesting situation - I started surfing 2 years ago on a 8ft wavestorm, and transitioned to a 6'3'' fish in about 6 months with no problems (was able to catch unbroken waves, stand up in whitewash, etc) and went on a surf camp afterwards where I surfed every day on a 6'3'' shortboard in whitewash with no problems. The only thing is, I had an injury from my 6'3'' fish where the fin slashed my thigh and it hit me in the head, so after the surf camp I came home and ditched my fish to go to a 6' liquid shredder foamie, which I have been surfing on for the past year and a half.

My only issue now is that I haven't progressed since last year - I can catch unbroken waves, but I can't ride the face of the waves or go down a line yet, no matter how hard I try. I can pop up and surf after the drop and turn at an angle in whitewash on the 6' foamie, but not much else.

I'm wondering if I should go back to a 6'3'' shortboard, but my previous injuries still terrify me that I want to keep using the foamie. However, I'm also wondering if the foamie has been stopping me from progressing even though I've been surfing pretty consistently (about 2-3 times a week for the past year or so).

Another thing I've been playing around with is hiring a surf coach to see what I'm doing wrong on my shortboard foamie, but if the surf coach is going to tell me that getting a 'real' board is what is hindering my progression, I might as well just get a real board (and try to get over my fear of injuries).

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[jaffa1949]

Well you pretty much nailed the cause of your challenges.
The short foamie is holding you back and so is the fear, both of injury if you went hard again and in pushing yourself on the foamie.
One solution is to really try to ride the heck out of the foamie..... push turns hard take of and engage in the wall riding across the face, embrace the wipeouts you will get,, you might get bruised but you won't get cut.
Drive the board hard in each thing you try increasing in small increments, gain confidence and skill start to feel where the foamie is reaching its limitations.
This will give you an instinctive feel of what a board can do and you will thoroughly know when you are ready to harden up and have a lot more skills and insti ctive feel for that stage of riding.

[waikikikichan]

When / If you do get back on a hardboard, just make sure to install Pro-teck fins or fins with a rubber edging. That will give you a bit of confidence back.

[dtc]

Agree with wkk - pro teck fins are great; I think there are some rubber edged fins around as well

[kookextraordinaire]

I would invest in a nose-guard; I split my eyebrow open when my board jerked back after a pretty unimpressive wipe-out. The worst injuries always occur in small waves for some reason.