Surfing Waves

Trying to keep this short

I have a 7'2 that is 48L and my step-up and was out in nearly DOH deep water/open ocean swell type waves. For a multitude of reasons I feel like a bigger board would suit my needs. My question is, what the heck is the next stepup from a solid 7'2? Should I get a 8 or 9' gun at this point?
To be frank I'm not able to duck dive my 7'2 adequately when caught by clean up sets, and then feel like i'm floundering / slow to get out of the impact zone when there's a lot of water moving and I'm trying to get to the channel and end up fatigued with a small wave count. Also I noitced a fair amount of chatter from the board/water surface when taking the drop.

Taking my step up out in these bigger big conditions results in me having lost the duck diveability by going up in volume but haven't gained enough paddle-a-bility because it's not enough volume IMHO.

Now I know theres smaller guys that can duck dive relatively larger boards, and bigger guys who paddle faster on smaller boards, but that's not me. I'm an average joe trying to maximize my chances of success in this surf.

Again, I want to get a board that can paddle similar to a longboard, handle steeper drops, not be affected by surface chop at high speeds, etc.

Thanks!

Boards like the Pyzel Padillac seems similar to what you're describing.
Theres also a variation of that board that keeps the rails thinner but volume gets more generous through the center of the deck. Nathan Florence had one in the video below. Might be worth looking into it..

What's wrong with just doing a Turtle Roll ?

By the way, here's a new more affordable gun from Carl Schaper who makes boards for a lot of big wave riders on the Northshore.

https://www.nspsurfboards.com/product/s ... equalizer/

Is it a gunny shape step up or more of a funboard shape? I have a 7’6 and 8’4 thick wide gun, but rarely use them, usually use my step up. The bigger boards are for double overhead slow rolling waves

My step up is 6’9 x 20 1/8 x 2 5/8 , about 40L, what arre the fins of your semi gun? It might be that you need user or thinker instead of longer