Beginner to Intermediate Surfboard (Tall & Heavy)

[erivera91]

Hello everyone,

My name is Edward and I started surfing 4 months ago, I go at least once a week in Southern California.

I started with the wavestorm, then moved to a 9 foot board.

I'm 6'1 250 pounds. What volume and size board do you recommend, I would like to transition to shorter boards.

[jaffa1949]

The answer is simple , not yet, stay with the 9ft+ board at your build, until you can surf well turning and riding capably frontside and backside and being functional down the line, also,catching waves easily, going short prematurely will slow your progress greatly.

The question Imwould also ask is.What benefits do you think going short will give you?

[erivera91]

Very true what you said. Benefit of shorter is faster turns haha

Thanks for the input though!

But once I'm ready, what volume should I be looking at on the smaller board and what size?

[waikikikichan]

Very true what you said. Benefit of shorter is faster turns haha

Faster turns ? Very NOT true.

Does moving up from a 250cc. Honda rebel motorcycle to a 1300cc. Suzuki Hayabusa make you go "faster" ? Maybe crash faster.

Your reaction times, paddling power and wave knowledge will have to increase before you can even start riding a 8'0" hard board. Forget about even going to a 7'6" fun board until you can turn a 8'0" mini-mal / mini-tanker proficiently.

[jaffa1949]

4 Months into surfing and you believe a short board will give you faster turning skills, you will loose wave catching paddling skill , particularly at your size and weight, if you manage to catch a wave it will be more critical for turning skills which you won’t have, kook multiplication factor.
Shorter will feel squirrelly .
Tell us how your surfing goes now and we can help, go short at this stage you will,really regress!

[IB_Surfer]

Very true what you said. Benefit of shorter is faster turns haha

Your reaction times, paddling power and wave knowledge will have to increase before you can even start riding a 8'0" hard board. Forget about even going to a 7'6" fun board until you can turn a 8'0" mini-mal / mini-tanker proficiently.

So, here is the answer!

It is recommended to go down in increments to the size you need, not all at once. I would try an 8ft that has similar thick and width to the one you have, get used to that, then go down after you get that one down. I'm 180lbs now, but started at 205lbs, here was my approach:

8ft minimal, 7'6 thick/wide California gun, 7'0speed egg, 6'8fish, 6'6 step up (which I still use for big days), 6'4 shortie, 6'2 shortie. This took about 4-5 years. I actually went down to 5'8" but I'm already 55 so I stuck to using a 6'2 shortboard to fight off them youngins.

Hope that helps