Thinking about buying first real shortboard. Should I?

[Elina5]

Hi all - thank you for looking at my post and giving me advice!

So, I have been surfing consistently 2-3 times a week for the past 7 months, and I've advanced to the point where I can go down the line, get some speed, do bottom turns, cutbacks (weak, but can do them), and I've started to work on my top turns. I can also go out in about head high surf and be confident, anything larger I'm a bit more iffy about, but I will still go out and try. I actually learned how to surf 6-7 years ago, and have surfed intermittently since then, but only in the past year have I been more consistent and been improving.

Right now I am riding a 6'6 used board that has around 30-33L of volume, I'm just estimating volume based on the dims and what I've researched. I am 5'6 110lb, 17 year old girl, so a shortboard for me would probably be around the 5'6-5'8 range, depending on the volume and such. I am also a swimmer and water polo player, so my paddling skills are great and I can pretty consistently get into waves.

Based on that info, should I get a used shortboard, and if so, what volume range should I be looking at (keep in mind that I would like to be able to duck dive, which I can do now, but not very well)

I really appreciate any advice! Thanks!

[dtc]

The 5ft8 or so seems like a good choice. Volume is not everything, you need to look at all the other dimensions and then volume as the last one - for example, a flat dumpster diver/potatonator style board will surf very differently to a highly rockered board even if the volume is the same

Given you are down at the short length, what you need to look at is the type and size of wave you catch - if you are catching peaky head high beach breaks, then a standard shortboard 19 inches or so wide would be good. But if they are smaller waves or fatter waves then maybe something a bit more egg shaped (ie wider and a bit thicker).