Surfing Waves

im sure alot of these kinda posts are around but im confuzzled and am in need of some advice...(sorry this is long)

i started surfing a few months ago, and have been about 10-15 times. my first board was a 7'2 NSP mini mal which i used for a while but wasnt having much luck. for some reason the guys i went surfing with failed to tell me to start off by messing about in the white water, so i used to paddle out back with them (gawd knows how i managed to get out!!)get hammered and come in without catching any waves.

after a while i discovered that the white water is where i should have begun, so started staying there and stood up on my mini mal.

then i had a go on my friends longboard (9'2) and started catching a few green waves when it was small.

im now getting a bit bored of just using my mini mal in the white water so im ready to start going out back and catching proper waves on that too, but after my earlier wipeouts im kinda scared!!!

i want to get a new surfboard as my surfer friends reckon my NSP is no longer much good to me for progress on , but everyone is advising me different things to get.

i was thinking i could get a longboard as i had fun on my mates and it would help me get better over summer then i could start going to bigger shortboards later on... but my local beach has a big cliff path to get down to so i wouldnt be able to carry it by myself so would have to rely on others to help me...

then i thought about getting a retro egg board (so i get the longboard feel, but will be able to carry the board myself) but apparently it wont really help my surfing much...

so now a friends telling me to get a proper mini mal like, 7'6, which i guess would be good for me, but i kinda feel like its a step down as before i was on a 7'2... then someone suggested a proper minimal about 7ft but im worried it'll be too small for summer waves...

so basically im totally confuzzled as to what to do...

another option is to not buy any boards and borrow friends until i know more...but then i'll still have to rely on others....

so help me.
please.

Hi

There seems to be a general consensus on this forum that the better you are the shorter the board!!

This isn't true. If you buy a 7'6 custom mini-mal - it will be a world apart from your NSP. It will be much faster, turn much better and generally be super fun. It will also be a lot lighter!!

The leap from a 7'2 NSP to a custom shortboard will be pretty huge. (and before I get loads of posts from people who have done this, I'm not saying impossible) Shortboards are so responsive that as soon as you start to get up, the board will be trying to turn depending on where the weight is. You will have to paddle a lot harder to catch waves too.

I would take your friends advice and go for the custom mini-mal or a funboard.

I surfed for 11 years on shortboards and got pretty good. 2 years ago I switched to a 7'5 mini-mal and I have NEVER had as much fun! It's a different vibe cos you can't shred as hard, but let's be honest - even if you went straight for the shortboard, it's going to be a few years before you're pulling aerials etc!!

MINI-MALs rock!!

Sinista

howdy, thanks for the reply! yea, think ive pretty much decided that a custom mini mal is the way to go for me... still not certain of what length, but im thinkin to stick with a 7'2 rather than going bigger or smaller than forst board, cause a syou said, it'll be a totally different feel...

thanks for your help!

wish me luck

xox