Surfing Waves

Hey guys, my friend wants to get his first surfboard.

I know there's a lot of beginner board topics but instead of specific answers such as 'Get a 7 foot 8 mini mal' or something...

can you guys tell me if a good beginner board should have lots of rocker, what type of tail, wide or narrow, thick or thin, approx. how much bigger than him, pointed nose or round etc etc.

Thanks heaps.

The rules are simple for a beginner get something long, wide and fat- tail shape, rocker and shape of nose will not make a huge difference; they're all finer details that come into play later in choosing a surfboard.

rocker and shape of nose will not make a huge difference

Rocker has so much to do with paddling ease and volume in the nose is quite a good thing for a beginner...no finer details...

^ It's actually foil which determines ease of paddling (maximised with the greatest volume under the chest)- the rocker is the curvature measurements on the base and will therefore control how the board flows over the water: With basic entry level mini-mals and longboards the rocker will not significantly change enough for a beginner to notice or influence their learning capabilities.

Nose shape again will not change signifiantly with most entry level surfboards- thinned out nose shapes are unique to shortboards and guns, both unsuitable for beginners so nose shape will not be a major part of decision making.

scuba steve wrote:^ It's actually foil which determines ease of paddling (maximised with the greatest volume under the chest)- the rocker is the curvature measurements on the base and will therefore control how the board flows over the water: With basic entry level mini-mals and longboards the rocker will not significantly change enough for a beginner to notice or influence their learning capabilities.

Nose shape again will not change signifiantly with most entry level surfboards- thinned out nose shapes are unique to shortboards and guns, both unsuitable for beginners so nose shape will not be a major part of decision making.

I agree that mostly the finer shape details will be a non event for most beginers where i disagree however is that if you gave a beginer a board with an exagerated rocker they will know the difference they just wont know what that difference is.

Also i dont quite agree with you on the point that rocker doesnt impact paddling so much. I have found it makes a massive difference. But point being paddle power is a combination of things in a board not just associated with one thing.

Also you are assuming that a newb is a complete donught/clueless (which some are) But not all are so clueless that they arent going to notice differences they just dont have the experience to understand what they are and why

On a side note the ideal beginer board is probably only good for a month of learning before you would outgrow it hence why most entry level boards have a shape that can handle many aspects of surfing. (learning foam boards are great for whitewater newbs but useless when you evolve to the green face)

I did'nt say if you gave a beginner an exagerrated rocker they would not tell the difference, my point was simply the finer details of the rocker are only applicable to the more advanced surfer.

The majority of entry-level surfboards do not have complicated rocker profiles to adapt specific needs and are therefore farily regular. Of course if you were to exaggerate this to the extreme, the difference would be obvious to even a complete beginner.

The foil does have the main influence on paddling ability. The main purpose of the rocker is to characterise surfing manouverability and speed with a flatter rocker producing more speed but less manouverability (suited to a beginner). Since therefore nearly all beginner boards have a relatively flat rocker, the paddling ability will not be significantly affected.

It's pretty irrelevant really because for a beginner the longer, wider and thicker a board is the easier it will be to surf. All I'm saying is the other factors will be fairly constant across the beginner board range and therefore do not need to be analysed to a great detail.

It's pretty irrelevant really because for a beginner the longer, wider and thicker a board is the easier it will be to surf. All I'm saying is the other factors will be fairly constant across the beginner board range and therefore do not need to be analysed to a great detail.

yep from that angle id agree

Also, should he get a long, wide beginner board (which he can learn quicker on) or a fibreglass around 6'4" (which will last him a while)?

Would a swallow tail be ok for his first board?

The 6'4" will last him ages, it'll be 2 years before he gets to his feet with that...

Begginer = log time. 9ft & floaty, more if your a big guy, less if your little/girl.

RJD wrote:The 6'4" will last him ages, it'll be 2 years before he gets to his feet with that...

Well put.

i started surfing about 3 years ago, and i cant even imagine trying o learn on a 6-4 lol, would be an absolute nightmare. i learned on a 8-6 i think and it was just big enough, even still wobbly. i would never ever try to learn on something less than that. oh i weighed 175 lbs. at that point in case ur wondering.

drowningbitbybit wrote:

RJD wrote:The 6'4" will last him ages, it'll be 2 years before he gets to his feet with that...

Well put.

Thats got to be one of my fav quotes

RJD wrote:The 6'4" will last him ages, it'll be 2 years before he gets to his feet with that...

first board that i put considerable time on was a Wil Jobson 6'5" bat-tail twinzer (i'm 5'7" 150lbs). I knew it was going to be a battle, but i liked the board so much and for $150, i couldn't pass it up. it took me a good few months to get the "feel" of the board. since i started with a small-ish board, i had a lot of trouble paddling into a wave (keeping balance, not pearling, laying too forward/backwards, you name it).

starting off short is definitely a challenge. if you are the type of person that doesn't mind taking a beating and working yourself extra hard for that first pop-up, going short is not a bad idea. the feeling of accomplishment is pretty sweet.

by the way, i'm new here. whats up all!

If cost is an issue then get something like a 7'8"-8'4", since it would last him longer. (I learned on a 7'2", and I can honestly say it was a tad to small.) If it is ok to get a new board in 3 months then 8'8"+ would be best.

Oh and I forgot to mention, he's about 5 feet tall and about 40 kilograms heavy.

In that case a 7-8ft minimal/ egg or something will be fine.

Make sure theres nothing extreem on it (easy rails, not too much or too little rocker etc) and it has a bit of size/float to it but is small enough they can carry/handle it.