Surfing Waves

Hi guys,

I took my first surf lessons last year in Portugal and totally fell in love with the sport. I've recently had my second surf week and my plan is to go on surf trips for at least 6 weeks per year in the future.
So far I've had 10 lessons, did well in white water, not so well in green water. My excuse is that the waves were not very beginner friendly with a (according to surf-forecast) height of 1.5m+ meters and an energy that hammers you far back to the beach if you are not good at turtlerolling yet.

So, back to the title of my post: I would like to buy my own first board to be independent of surf schools and surf rentals. It's not that I don't want to take lessons from time to time anymore, but I would like to go into water whenever I want and try for myself.

What got me confused are the extremely mixed recommendations for a first board. For my data (5'9/181cm and 71kg) and level the surf channel videos, volume calculators and people on this forum recommend something between 7'0 and 40l to 9'0 and 60+l.

Summarizing it all I came to the impression that a 7'6 hard board with about 50l should be a decent board to improve on. More specifically, I'm looking into the Torq Mini Malibus of that size. What do you think?

Cheers
Michael

The general recommendation is to start 3ft over your head - so around 9ft for you. Maybe 2 ft if you want to push it. Volume isnt everything, in fact its not really that important to a beginner once you have 'enough' (which for your level is probably more than 50L). The more length and width a board has the more stable it is, the more margin for error it has (positioning, timing, foot placement, pop up speed, positioning on the wave).You will make all sorts of mistakes when you are starting out, what you want is a board that doesnt punish you for those mistakes, or at least only if you make big mistakes. The shorter and narrower the board, the less margin for error you have. Volume helps you catch a wave and can help you maintain speed on the face, but it doesnt help you to stand up, get your feet right, balance etc etc.

as an aside - for learners this is probably the best volume calculator http://surfsimply.com/surf-coaching/vol ... ht-ratios/ and suggests a 60L board for you (I've made you a 'level 2' surfer - which you probably arent quite, but near enough)

The main downsides to a larger board is that you need to get quickly up to speed on how to handle the board in the water - its large and heavy. Its harder to control a 9ft than a 7'6; but not by a huge amount. However it is much harder to surf a 7'6 than a 9ft board. Oh, of course the other downside of a 9ft is transporting it, so if transporting a longer board really is an issue - then you have to accept what you can transport

While you are planning to surf 6 weeks a year, I presume that is going to be intermittent ie 2 weeks surfing then 10 weeks away then a week surfing etc. So say after your first week you hit level A and after your second week you manage to get to B. After 10 weeks off, when you start again you will probably be much closer to level A than level B - you wont progress in a straight line. Dont get too far ahead of yourself - you will certainly be able to surf a shorter/7ftish board confidently within maybe 2 years, but not immediately. An easy to surf board will do wonders over a harder to surf board, particularly when you have big breaks between surfs. If you were surfing 3 times a week things would be different

As an aside, if you dont keep as surf fit as possible during your breaks eg swimming, maybe weights, yoga, running etc - you will discover that your 2 week surf trip becomes a 3 day trip, one day of flailing around for an hour, a day or two of rest/exhaustion. So that 2 week surf trip becomes 9 days of surfing...

So I would suggest you get a 9ft board, or at least 8ft+. I know they seem huge on land, but once you are in the water that length disappears and you are grateful for what it offers. The 7'6 mod fun is also pretty narrow for a beginner board (21 1/2) - you will appreciate an extra 1/2 or 1 inch more than you think. The Torq 8'6 longboard would be a fine choice, or the 9ft. Nice low rocker, I like the squash thumb tail for your level (personally - others may not), nice and wide (22 1/2)

if you absolutely have your heart set on a 7'6 - sure, the Torq mod fun is not a bad choice for a 7'6 board for a beginner.

Hope that helps. To quote the surf simply link above

A board that is too small will paddle slow, catch waves late, bog down in turns, and generally make your surfing look terrible. A board that is too big on the other hand, has only one downside; if you’re technique is poor, you can’t cheat and try to torque the board round with your upper body.

Start looking for a 8'0" mini-mal after you can catch green waves consistently and have a good paddle on a board 3 feet over your head.
Start looking for a 7'6" funboard after you can turn your 8'0" board frontside and backside consistently. If you don't know how to or don't understand what a "bottom turn" is, ...... YOU are not ready for a 7'6".
( But a wrong sized board is better than sitting on the beach with no board ).

Being a beginner myself who has ridden various boards so far, I would agree with dtc and go at least 2ft above your height, 8.6 could be a good compromise. I also found Surf Simplys Volume to Weight suggestions pretty fitting.

If you mainly surf during vacations (like I do), the lurning curve will not be very steep and you want a board that gets you riding fast.

The Torq 8.6 should be a good fit.

Maybe one additional remark on handling. I have flown with 8.0, 8.6 and 9.2 long travel board bags and transported them at destination with FCS Softracks on the roof. It does not really make a big difference unless the companies you typically fly with have some length limits. On the car or on the beach, I find the difference neligible. So I would suggest to not make transportation a criteria unless it means a hard limit for you. You want to catch as many waves as possible, and bigger boards help.

Thanks so much for your replies guys, I very much appreciate them! Seems I almost fell into the ego trap with my board choice.

I think I will go with the Torq 8'6 now and hopefully catch more waves than I did the last time!

@dtc: I'll definitely try to maintain a good "surf-related" fitness level when not surfing. The paddling was killing me and I was sore for a week despite my - I think - generally not too bad fitness level. I now do dry-paddling with a resistance band and when I have my board I will paddle it on the nearby river. Of course it doesn't fully resemble surfing conditions, but I guess it's the closest you can have when being away from the ocean.

@Oldie: Transportation was also a concern for me, glad to hear that it doesn't make too much of a difference. Talking about transportation, I will need a board bag for the board. Is it right to assume that if I buy a 8'6 double board bag I could easily fit e.g. a 7'0 board in there once my progress allows it? I assume you only need to put some extra cushioning to account for the empty space?

MichaelTheKook wrote:T Is it right to assume that if I buy a 8'6 double board bag I could easily fit e.g. a 7'0 board in there once my progress allows it? I assume you only need to put some extra cushioning to account for the empty space?

If you take both boards with you - yes. And Wetsuits etc can be used for cushioning. That is what we do as we also pack mine and my daughters 7.6. If you only have one board or only <=7.6 boards, an 8.6 bag is a bit big.