Surfing Waves

Hi All,

My girlfriend and I have been weekend surfing for around 4 months now currently in NZ. We have a 7ft 6' soft top mini mal each. We are heading back to the UK soon then some stops in Europe and want to buy a few boards each to take our surfing to the next level and account for all kinds of waves (eg, small surf in Italy). We can catch unbroken waves and go down the face left and right (badly, but it's a start).

I have been looking at buying a BIC Epoxy 7ft egg shape, as it seems to have a lot of volume and looks indestructible. We deem this to be our main board for improving.

I was thinking of buying a 9ft long board and maybe a 6ft.2 fish, both of them soft tops to keep the price down. Do you think buying these soft tops will allow us to progress from where we are now? or should I really be trying to buy second hand proper boards? Are the performance of these soft boards going to hold us back over the next year of surfing?

Thanks for your help

Which boards are you asking about? The egg or the softboards? Or all of them? I'm not sure a 6'2 board is the best option bit the others sound reasonable

Thank you for the reply.

I am pretty sure the Egg is a good option with 51 litres of volume I should be ok on that to progress.

The softboards is my real concern. If I buy multiple boards is it worth getting softbaords as my practice boards for smaller board riding, ie a Fish or Shortboard in softtop version. Will they allow me to progress and learn the feel of a shorter board? or am i just going to sink like a lead balloon?

Cheers

If you want to progress, forget about a) softboards, b) multiple boards, c) fishes and shortboards.

Buy one proper board that has plenty - and I mean plenty - of volume. A 7' egg might be okay if you're pretty light, but assuming you're a proper grown-up size, then you'll probably want to go longer.

uksurfer wrote: is it worth getting softboards as my practice boards for smaller board riding, ie a Fish or Shortboard in softtop version. Will they allow me to progress and learn the feel of a shorter board?

When you get to the level/skill to ride a short(er) board, you'll need to be able bottom turn,cutback and create speed by carving from rail to rail. Those will involve the hard edge on the rail and also the fins. Softboard's weak points are those two. Since they don't have a hard edge and usually rubber fins.

Also spongeboards do well banging you in the head, but don't fair well get bang by corners and tree branches and other pointy things.

drowningbitbybit wrote:Buy one proper board that has plenty - and I mean plenty - of volume. A 7' egg might be okay if you're pretty light, but assuming you're a proper grown-up size, then you'll probably want to go longer.

Good advice! I also recommend renting or borrowing the board before you buy. It's helpful to test the ride with your abilities in the water.

Thank you very much all of you for taking the time to help me on this one.

I will take the good advice from you experienced surfers. I will go with a big volume Egg, learn the ropes properly before buying multiple boards in different shapes and sizes.

...plus it saves me some cash...although the Mrs will want some new shoes no doubt