Surfing Waves

I'm still learning, the only board i could afford is a very floaty hawaiian vintage, i get to stand up but then i can't be up more than 3-5 secs. and i'm having a very hard time trying to get out of the breaking waves.. Any ideas?

A floaty hawaian vintage board sounds like a great beginer board, surprised you can only stand up from 3 - 5 seconds, maybe if you can explain your difficulties we can give you more feedback.

As to getting out, a big floaty board is not easy to get out in breaking waves, you will have to practice either duckdiving or turtlerolling, which for a beginer are usually not so easy to learn but eventually you will develop the skills for it. For now try to look at the surf from the beach and find channels that can help you get out to the lineup. Where do you surf? Maybe someone that has local knowledge can chime in

I'm thinking it's a little too floaty ha ha i have problems to maintain balance it is about 3 1/2 inches thick, I'm 5'4 tall and 128 lb. Once i stand up i keep falling forward mostly. Most pepole keep telling me i should try on a bigger board i like mine i just nedd some advice

BTW i surf in bahia de banderas, Nayarit, Mexico

Most people are giving you the right advice but you are choosing to stay with this board, but the major problem is you are a beginner, the board is probably OK but it is not the best for your stage , you will however become better as you surf more.
learning to surf is not easy although it looks it. persist!

Falling forward is called "pearling".

At 128lbs you could probably stand anywhere on a 3 1/2" thick board, but if you stand too far forward you will pearl. That might be one reason. Be careful, if you are too far back you won't catch the wave, so try to find the center or balanced point on your board.

Also, it means that you are not paddling hard enough, so the wave will pick you up and throw you forward. Work on paddling harder, head up, arch your back, stroke down and not up.

So, watch where you stand, and look up some videos on how to paddle. Buena suerte!

I've never surfed Nayarit, but know friends that have, it's a great place to learn.

IB_Surfer wrote:Falling forward is called "pearling".

At 128lbs you could probably stand anywhere on a 3 1/2" thick board, but if you stand too far forward you will pearl. That might be one reason. Be careful, if you are too far back you won't catch the wave, so try to find the center or balanced point on your board.

Also, it means that you are not paddling hard enough, so the wave will pick you up and throw you forward. Work on paddling harder, head up, arch your back, stroke down and not up.

So, watch where you stand, and look up some videos on how to paddle. Buena suerte!

thnks for the advice...i tried to pay attention to what i was doing wrong i think (as you said) i need to stroke down more and i think i'm standing in the tip of my toes !! (been doing that since i was a little girl) hahaha thank u!!

thank you all! i'm sure i can, i just neeed more practice and WELCOME!! any comments