Surfing Waves

stats
14 and 3/4 years old, female, 175cm tall, roughly 65 kg

waves
Surf all types of waves up to about 4ft occasionally bigger

level
came 2nd in u15 girls division, SA National Champs

Hey,
I am looking for a 'low maintenance' small wave longboard that I can transport easily back and forth from the beach (ie. In the back of a car , no roofracks)

Since its summer here now, Ive recently gotten into longboarding at my local beachbreak when its small and its a really fun change of pace to shortboarding. So far, Ive borrowed a friends board which I think was roughly 9ft. I really love nose riding and being able to do funky stuff like twirl around and stand backwards on one leg, and I really love how fast and easily I can paddle into really tiny waves. However I also tried renting an 8ft board, and I loved how i could turn a lot easier and faster than on the 9ft. So i guess my question is:
What features/dimensions of a board will allow me to do as many as possible of the following : Paddle easily into tiny waves (this is important and probably my favourite feature), fit the board into a small car (i can fit my 5.8 and 5.11 in with the passenger seat back, and have about a foot or two of space left.) this is also very important as we cant put in roofracks, have enough stability to noseride and move around on the board. Im not really concerned with doing turns since I will only be surfing it on 1ft to 2ft at the most, although it would be nice to be able to do a cutback or a floater here and there.
What kind of shape, length, rocker, nose, width, volume are we looking at? I can live without extras, but it must fit in the car and it must be a paddling miracle.

Thanks for the help !

You could consider this soft racks for the car and get a board that fits your longboard needs.
I'm also curious why your parents' car can't have roof racks. ( I'm assuming 14 year olds don't drive in SA)
There is another option too, if you surf one particular beach you may have friends with whom you can leave your board/s.
8ft to 9ft a good standard longboard should do the trick, if you want to be a strong nose performer, then 50/50 rails and less tail rocker will suit your aim, at your weight getting to the nose will be a lot easier. Look for Kassia Meador and Rell Sunn on YouTube to see what you can aspire to in womens' longboarding. It is something beautiful

If you google walden tri-fold surfboard you will find that they make longboards that fold into three pieces for travel. Other than that get a thick and wide fish design short enough to fit your car.

I have a Pope Bisect, that I use for travel on airlines that won't take longboards or charge stupidly high prices. So either it or the Tri-fold would be an option and I suspect at 14 you don't have a lot of handy cash for them, so a good attempt at convincing your parents to buy roof racks or soft rack and the board of your choice, might be the better option.

Thanks, I would love to get roofracks but the problem is that I often go to the beach in different cars everyday , depending on which one of my family members or friends are free to take me. And it seems a bit silly to put roofracks on all of them. So it's pretty important that I can fit it into the car.
Those folding boards sound great but I really doubt that there's anything like them available here.
If we ignore the car problem,
What sort of length would be ideal for me?

I'll give my input as you have your questions/info listed

level : came 2nd in u15 girls division, SA National Champs - you might think about getting a 9'0 because thats the minimum length for longboard contest ( some rarely use the 3 feet over your head rule ) I say that because you might be at a contest that has both short and long competitions at the same venue. You can do a double entry.

"I am looking for a 'low maintenance' small wave longboard" - do you mean more ding resistant like a molded epoxy board ? Or low maintenance like not having to change the oil, adjust the valves ever 10,000 miles, or have to polish the leather or flooring type of board ?

"Ive borrowed a friends board which I think was roughly 9ft. - However I also tried renting an 8ft board, and I loved how i could turn a lot easier and faster than on the 9ft." - seems you answered you own question. You like the 8' better than the 9'. If your not doing competitions, get the easier to carry, load and store smaller of the 2.

i can fit my 5.8 and 5.11 in with the passenger seat back, and have about a foot or two of space left.) - So add 18 inches to your 5'11" and you get a board about 7'5" ( usually funboard size ).

"have enough stability to noseride and move around on the board." - if you can knee paddle it you can noseride it.

"What kind of shape, length, rocker, nose, width, volume are we looking at?" - why aren't you talking to your shaper about that ? so long as you get something with a round nose , not a pointy nose gun, you'll be fine. But 23" wide will hurt your paddling and inner thighs.

"Thanks, I would love to get roofracks but the problem is that I often go to the beach in different cars everyday , depending on which one of my family members or friends are free to take me. And it seems a bit silly to put roofracks on all of them. So it's pretty important that I can fit it into the car. " - we are recommending SOFT RACKS not HARD RACKS. Hard roof racks are bolted on. Soft racks are strapped on a removable. They can removed from one car and put on another car in 10-15 minutes ?

If we ignore the car problem, What sort of length would be ideal for me? - if you do comps, then 9'0" . If you have to put in your moms car, 7'5" or little bit less ( there's boards like the Donald Takayama Scorpion which are longboards but missing 3 feet in the middle). If you get soft racks, then 8'0" mini tanker/ mini-mal .

Ok great. Do you think I would be able to nose ride a minimal?
I'm not planning on doing contests on the longboard. I will only take it out when it's too small or mushy for my normal boards.
Any advice on fin set up?

Have fun with the minimal get one with the option for 3 fins. But ride it with a single, about equal to 1 inch per foot ie an eight foot board having an 8 inch centre fin if the tail rocker is small then then the fin can be smaller!
Take the minimal out in some good days , open your eyes and mind to different options!
Nose riding yep!
Enjoy thoroughly

I used soft racks and took them off and locked them in my car at the beach because people would take them sometimes if you leave them on your car unwatched. They have adjustable straps which is what you need adjust between cars. They are cheap enough you might get a set for each car you use then putting them on the car will be quick (as in less than a minute).

Thanks for the roof racks suggestions but it's not going to work! We're going with basically a mini longboard with a length of 8'0. It's going to be interesting to see how it goes. I think I mentioned that I will usually only be surfing it in ankle to waist or chest high at the biggest. The primary place I want to surf it is right out front which is a little weak beachbreak, but every know and then I can go to a more powerful point. What fin set up would you suggest? I've heard that thrusters are better for beachbreaks because you can turn faster, but the break where I'm going to surf it the most is very slow and not really dumpy at all, so does that still apply? Otherwise a 2+1?

Have fun. I like longboards on really small waves because I can often do a scissors kick take off where when I lay down I push the board under me at an angle deeper into the water then I squeeze my legs together real fast and pull the board up to the right position for takeoff which gives enough forward momentum to catch an ankle high wave without paddling. I don't know what to tell you about fins but it sounds like you are a decent surfer so it might make a difference (if you were a beginner maybe not). I think you will like a longer fin for noseriding so maybe a 2 and 1 configuration but I am not a noserider so maybe the others can tell you better what you need.

In small surf I would go for a single fin - 8inches. You can get fins more designed for nose riding (eg hatchet/large base) or more designed for turning (dolphin). A 2+1 set up can work as well; but you probably don't need the extra fins for small surf

have a watch of this

Better still have a look at Kassia a better longboard surfer to base you approach on.
Great surfer great ambassador for women.

Get this level of understanding and whatever you surf will be enhanced.

That's beautiful.
Is it really possible to get all 10 toes up there on a 8'0 though?
Has anyone got experience with noseriding small boards? I Personally would be satisfied with a couple cheater fives every now and then (at least for now ) but I'm curious what's the smallest board you have ever noseridden?

Getting good nose rides and getting ten should be no problem at your weight and size on an 8ft board.
All that is required is learning the skills

kingfisherpoos wrote:I'm curious what's the smallest board you have ever noseridden?

I was out at Snapper once, on a small but clean day, with long peeling lines off the point. I paddled into a wave, but then saw that someone was already coming down it so pulled off. As he passed me, he was hanging ten as he went along the clean face for several hundred yards.

It was only when he pulled off the wave that I realised he was on an old-school 5'8 fish
Amazing.

I usually tell people if they can knee paddle it they should be able to noseride it. However, more important than float is the wave wrapping over and holding down the tail. The board in the photo is a 6'4" NSP fish set up as a thruster. You can see the left inside rail is set into the waves face. The curl of the breaking lip is crashing down over the tail.

Thank you for all replies. I went with the 8'0 and it should be here by tomorrow.
About fins, this is the main company that my local shop stocks http://www.wedgesurfboards.co.za/fins.htm#m

If you don't mind, take a look and let me know what I should be looking for

Wow..that video is beautiful, she makes that big board turn with such style and it looks almost effortless. Extraordinary

of the fins on the site you posted, I say the Flex or Dolphin would be good. The Cutaway would be good to get that initial turn of the nose to point down the line. If you got no problem turning the tail, then go with the first 2 choices. Put it in the middle of the box to start. Move up ( or back ) in 1 centimeter increments to see what happens.