Surfing Waves

I want to get a shortboard or fish for 2-5ft waves but I don't know what size board or volume. I'm 5 ft 6 123 pounds and good fitness. I've been surfing as much as I can , around 5 times a month for 1 year with a 9 ft longboard but I can't catch waves over 4 ft out the back. I just want to know what board , what size and what volume. Any help is good. Thanks. And I'm 14 years old male

Cg41115 wrote:I've been surfing as much as I can , around 5 times a month for 1 year with a 9 ft longboard but I can't catch waves over 4 ft out the back. I just want to know what board , what size and what volume. Any help is good.

1) If you could help explain why you can't catch 4 ft. waves out back, that would make it easier to recommend your next board.
2) So if you can catch 2 foot and 3 foot waves with no problem, what happens when you try to catch 4 ft. waves ?
3) Other than a Shortboard or Fish, why did you not include Funboards as one of your choices ?
4) What do your surf buddies ride ?

waikikikichan wrote:

Cg41115 wrote:I've been surfing as much as I can , around 5 times a month for 1 year with a 9 ft longboard but I can't catch waves over 4 ft out the back. I just want to know what board , what size and what volume. Any help is good.

1) If you could help explain why you can't catch 4 ft. waves out back, that would make it easier to recommend your next board.
2) So if you can catch 2 foot and 3 foot waves with no problem, what happens when you try to catch 4 ft. waves ?
3) Other than a Shortboard or Fish, why did you not include Funboards as one of your choices ?
4) What do your surf buddies ride ?

Whenever I go for a bigger wave my board nosedives I think it's cos of the steepness and I thought a shorter board would be better for steeper waves. I didn't say a funboard cos I didn't think it would help too much and my friends use funboards or fish

Going for a shorter board will make your nosediving worse.

Read this

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=23001&hilit=nose+dive+perling#p171170

its your paddling and positioning and not your board. A shorter board makes paddling and positioning even more important ie less room for error. You can still nose dive a shortboard.

However, at your height and weight you can definitely go for a shorter than 9ft board if you wish (but you can also successfully surf on a 9ft board). I wouldnt go much below 7ft or below 40L eg look at the Torq funboard or mod fish (as an example; there are of course plenty of other boards); smaller than this and, from your description, you probably will struggle to catch many waves. At your age and level, catching more waves more often is a much much better way to become a good surfer than getting a board for a good surfer and then spending a long time trying to surf it.

Or see if you can borrow a friend's board and give it a go

Maybe it's the waves. Maybe it's your board. Maybe it's your technique. Maybe it's a combo of all or any of those. If the waves are peaky and jacking up quickly it's true that you'll have a harder time on a bigger board with little rocker. But if it's not hollow or pitching surf then the problem is probably related to when and how you enter the wave. Rather than trying to drop straight down the face, you may need to angle your approach more, or simply get in earlier.

FWIW, I'm pretty close to your height and weight (though much older). The first board that I was really comfortable with was an 8'6" mini mal set up as a thruster and I could get it into most waves as long as my approach was good. I've surfed a lot of different boards since then, but my fav funboard is a 6'10" Bing Dharma (~49L). These boards are meant to be surfed as a much smaller fish-type board, but it works at that length with my height and weight as a funboard. I'm not saying you need to get that exact board, but as dtc said above, it's in the range of what you might want for a transition to a shortboard given our similar stature - basically, an oversized fish with some volume that will still get you into waves early but be nimble enough so that you can throw it around a bit more easily. BUT, if the core problem is still about dropping into big, steep, hollow waves then you probably do want something with more rocker.

dtc wrote:Going for a shorter board will make your nosediving worse.

Read this

viewtopic.php?f=34&t=23001&hilit=nose+dive+perling#p171170

its your paddling and positioning and not your board. A shorter board makes paddling and positioning even more important ie less room for error. You can still nose dive a shortboard.

However, at your height and weight you can definitely go for a shorter than 9ft board if you wish (but you can also successfully surf on a 9ft board). I wouldnt go much below 7ft or below 40L eg look at the Torq funboard or mod fish (as an example; there are of course plenty of other boards); smaller than this and, from your description, you probably will struggle to catch many waves. At your age and level, catching more waves more often is a much much better way to become a good surfer than getting a board for a good surfer and then spending a long time trying to surf it.

Or see if you can borrow a friend's board and give it a go

Thanks I think I'm going to get a 6'10 or 7'2 funboard with around 47 volume

Do you know any good funboards ???

There are a ton of good choices for funboards out there, but they surf differently for different people. If you've only been surfing for a year and your ultimate goal is to transition to a short board, you might consider buying a decent used board that matches your criteria. Try it out in a bunch of different conditions to get a feel for it. If it works, great. If not, you can resell a used board for pretty much what you paid for it if it's in pretty much the same condition as when you bought it. That way, you can get a feel for what works for you.

Cg41115 wrote:Do you know any good funboards ???

Do you know any good baseball bats ?
Do you know any shoe that fits my foot ? What brand is better Nike, Addidas, Puma, Reebok ?
A eyeglass that fits on my face nicely, may feel awkward on yours. You need to try them on and compare. There's no Funboard that catches waves, doesn't pearl and turns all on its own. Why don't you try some of your friends' Fish boards and see how it feels ?

As the others have said, there are 1000s of choices for funboards or large fish boards. And it depends where you are living - big companies like NSP and Torq make reasonable boards; second hand boards are a good choice as well, particularly if you are intending to keep going shorter (as surferbee said, you can sell it on to fund your next board). Before you buy a second hand board google up a few articles on what to look for/danger signs and you should be right.

I would advise just getting really good on your longboard. Check out how flat the board people were riding at Sunset in the 50's were in "Set into Liquid" (Greg Noll et. al). And they were killing it!

Getting a new board won't mean your surfing will get better. Mastering riding the wave, not the board, is the essence of improvement.

I have a guy at my break thats surf 7ft waves on a 9ft board, he just paddles and angles his board then pushes on his rail so it knifes the surface and as a result you can't nose dive, learn to knife your surfboard on a face, that's the best way of stopping nose dives, I rarely get nose dives only in jacking surf and that's when I know it's a closeout and straighten out

kookextraordinaire wrote:I would advise just getting really good on your longboard. Check out how flat the board people were riding at Sunset in the 50's were in "Set into Liquid" (Greg Noll et. al). And they were killing it!

Getting a new board won't mean your surfing will get better. Mastering riding the wave, not the board, is the essence of improvement.

Thanks I'm gonna get better on my longboard until I can catch most waves and turn well on them. Then go shorter for a funboard around 7'2

waikikikichan wrote:

Cg41115 wrote:Do you know any good funboards ???

Do you know any good baseball bats ?
Do you know any shoe that fits my foot ? What brand is better Nike, Addidas, Puma, Reebok ?
A eyeglass that fits on my face nicely, may feel awkward on yours. You need to try them on and compare. There's no Funboard that catches waves,
doesn't pearl and turns all on its own. Why don't you try some of your friends' Fish boards and see how it feels ?

I meant do you know any brands that make good quality funboards

Cg41115 wrote:

waikikikichan wrote:

Cg41115 wrote:Do you know any good funboards ???

Do you know any good baseball bats ?
Do you know any shoe that fits my foot ? What brand is better Nike, Addidas, Puma, Reebok ?
A eyeglass that fits on my face nicely, may feel awkward on yours. You need to try them on and compare. There's no Funboard that catches waves,
doesn't pearl and turns all on its own. Why don't you try some of your friends' Fish boards and see how it feels ?

I meant do you know any brands that make good quality funboards

I totally get what you're asking, you don't want to waste money on a board that falls apart after a few rides. What you need to know is if those brands are actual "Brands", then they're good.
Sports shoes - Nike, Addidas, Puma
Tennis racquets - Prince, Wilson, Head, Yonex
Bicycles - Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Giant
Now if you buy a bike or tennis racquet ( or surfboard ) at Walmart or a Toy store, then maybe those aren't up to par. But is it ?
A surfboard is basically a TOOL, like a hammer. Well a Stanley hammer outperform a "no-name" brand hammer ? Well maybe yes for the professional carpenter swinging one all day, but for someone who just building a simple birdhouse or hanging a picture on the wall, "ANY" hammer will do.
Those "quality" surfboard makers don't actually make the materials that make up the boards. They source/ purchase them from the fiberglass cloth and P.U. board blank, resin and fins makers ( of which there's only a handful in the world ), just like the no-name backyard shapers do. A $3000.00 board ( like we have here in Japan ) can snap just as easily as a board bought for $250. The wave doesn't care if its a Channel Islands, Hayden, Firewire or Costco wave storm. ( but maybe your cool hip friends well ).

Do you know any good baseball bats ?
Do you know any shoe that fits my foot ? What brand is better Nike, Addidas, Puma, Reebok ?
A eyeglass that fits on my face nicely, may feel awkward on yours. You need to try them on and compare. There's no Funboard that catches waves,
doesn't pearl and turns all on its own. Why don't you try some of your friends' Fish boards and see how it feels ?

I meant do you know any brands that make good quality funboards[/quote]
I totally get what you're asking, you don't want to waste money on a board that falls apart after a few rides. What you need to know is if those brands are actual "Brands", then they're good.
Sports shoes - Nike, Addidas, Puma
Tennis racquets - Prince, Wilson, Head, Yonex
Bicycles - Trek, Cannondale, Specialized, Giant
Now if you buy a bike or tennis racquet ( or surfboard ) at Walmart or a Toy store, then maybe those aren't up to par. But is it ?
A surfboard is basically a TOOL, like a hammer. Well a Stanley hammer outperform a "no-name" brand hammer ? Well maybe yes for the professional carpenter swinging one all day, but for someone who just building a simple birdhouse or hanging a picture on the wall, "ANY" hammer will do.
Those "quality" surfboard makers don't actually make the materials that make up the boards. They source/ purchase them from the fiberglass cloth and P.U. board blank, resin and fins makers ( of which there's only a handful in the world ), just like the no-name backyard shapers do. A $3000.00 board ( like we have here in Japan ) can snap just as easily as a board bought for $250. The wave doesn't care if its a Channel Islands, Hayden, Firewire or Costco wave storm. ( but maybe your cool hip friends well ).[/quote]

K Thanks for the advice