board for my 9 year old

[surfermom]

Hi. My nine year old son has been surfing for the past year. We have gone through two soft boards ( most recent liquid shredder 6'4") What's next? He REALLY wants a "real" board(short). He's about 70#S and 4'5". We live in Santa Monica, and he surfs our small mushy waves. Any help would be great! As a mom I have some concerns with him moving onto a hard board. Thanks!

[namino tsume]

ummm ok first thing first.... your kid is kinda small so you can get him a smaller board.... a shortboard around 6' or 5'10 would be wonderful for him... and he can really learn to rip on it. the waves are mushy so you might want to think about getting him a 5'7" fish board.... fish have more volume so you catch waves easier and surf them better. do not get him one of the real retro style fishes. i would go to the local shop and ask someone there to show you a fish board that he can really surf well on and learn to do some cutbacks. they might show you a pirahna board. however you could get him a regular shortboard thats a bit longer then the fish you would get him... again mabye around 6'.

now as to getting him a hard fiberglass board... have no worries. it may be hard and seem dangerous but it really isnt. the main cancern is that you get hit on the head and passout and drown however this is very very very very unlikely. it would take a very powerful wave.... mabye triple over head to knock you out. ive been hit on the head by a fiberglass board in double overhead and came up with either a bloody nose (not that bad) or a little head that went away after half and hour.
hope this helps.

[surfermom]

Namino Tsume......Thanks for the advice. he is now on a fiberglass board.... doing very well. we had some great surf this weekend at Zuma. Baja swell. I just had to breath a lot. are you really 14?

[namino tsume]

Ya im 14. I started surfing when i was about 10. I hope he really gets into and becomes a good surfer. Also have no worries, surfers out there always watch out for each other... and after 3 years of continous surfing, i only had two injuries where a bleed a bi tand had to come out of the water. There really is no serious danger as long as hes with a crowd.

Where is Zuma? Sounds like a tropical place.

[surfermom]

Zuma beach is at the more north end of Malibu. really great beach nice waves.

Where are you?

[deathfrog]

I think fins are more dangerous than a hard board, for I leanred on a hard board when I was about 6, never hurt myself on my board but got mulitple times by the fins. just a thought.

[surfermom]

thanks, we changed out the fins for the softer "protec" ones. Added a nose guard too.