Surfing Waves

Hey all,

I have lived 1 mile away from the beach on the jersey shore all my life. About a month ago, I took a surf lesson and absolutely LOVED it! I stood up about 8 times and rode 3 waves all the way to shore in 1 hour.

For the past few weeks I have been using my friend's brothers board (in the picture on the left). It is an 8 foot wavestorm and about 15 lbs. With this board and on my own, I have barely been able to stand up. I am a 5'7" female who weighs 140 lbs. Is this the wrong board or am I just still really terrible and need to keep practicing? I also have the smaller one pictured, but I figure this pointy one is definitely too difficult for me at this level.

Thanks!-Wanna be surfer girl

The wavestorm is the right board for the moment, You could get a hard board that looks like the wavestorm (eg rounded nose, parallel sides etc), which might be lighter, but not standing up isnt an issue with the lightness of the board. So basically...yes you are still terrible.

However, dont lose heart - thats totally normal.

Are you surfiing in the white water or trying to catch unbroken waves? If you arent in the white water, spend a few sessions just paddling for and catching the white water and popping up. The benefit is you can do this 30 times in an hour, because you can walk out to the right spot and there is always white water.

On your surf lesson,
1) did the instructor give you a push to help you get on the wave ?
2) did you paddle all by yourself ?

What size were the lesson boards ? 9 feet ? 10 feet ?