Boogie boarding to surfing

[DFreeman]

Hey everyone, just looking for some friendly advice!
I'm quite an experienced boogie boarder (10 years) and I love to drop knee. I've always wanted to surf though but have never gotten around to it. I can like I said drop knee as well as wakeboard with ease and also love to skateboard.
My question now is, should I consider myself a beginner and learn on a bigger board, or would I be able to buy a shorter board? All opinions welcome, cheers!

[oldmansurfer]

If you drop knee then you have had to time the popup as you take off so that will help with surfing. Wave and ocean knowledge will help too and if you paddle to get into waves that will also help. However that still makes you a newbie. I think if you are healthy and fit and can surf a lot then that newbie stage will go by a lot quicker but still you won't be able to just stand up and ride a wave from the get go, or at least not reliably. If you are up for the challenge and have time to surf go for a shortboard (one made for a beginner). If you aren't fit, don't have time, have shoulder or back injuries, aren't used to paddling into waves or get easily discouraged then a longboard might still be a better choice. Some where in between then a fun board might be the thing. I was a paipo boarder back in the day before the invention of the boogie board. I progressed to drop knee and then to just kneeboarding on my paipo board. While I might get lucky and just do everything right, it took me two weeks of surfing every day to get it to where I was most often able to ride a (green) wave in but I learned on a shortboard. It took me 2 years of surfing before I was as good at surfing as I was at paipo boarding. I was extremely fit and completely injury free at the time and while I used fins I was catching bigger waves paipo boarding which meant I had to paddle to catch them in addition to kicking with my fins and I was a swimmer, used to be on the swim team. So your results may vary from that but the main thing is to not expect it to be a piece of cake.

[DFreeman]

Thanks for the reply! I'm 21 and fit but I don't get to out to the surf much because of uni and the closest beach is 1.5 hours away (live in Melbourne, Australia).
I'm currently in Hawaii though for a holiday so im hiring a longboard today to try!
Will post results of the session!

[oldmansurfer]

A long board will be much easier. Most instructors here will have you riding waves on your first day. Which island are you on?

[DFreeman]

I'm at Waikiki it's my first time here so I don't know much about the islands.
Went out on an 8ft longboard surfing around 3ft waves for two hours and I was standing up and was able to move around the wave! I've got three more days here so I'll keep practicing on the 8ft board. I'm super keen about buying a board when I get back home! Not sure what board though.

[jaffa1949]

Talk to Uncle jaffa when you get home 8ft options for Australia no worries , great you've become an upstanding citizen!

[waikikikichan]

Just missed you by a day or two. I was surfing Queens and Canoes mid day. Where are you renting the 8 foot board from ?

I bodyboarded for 10 years before changing over to surfing. Although I say to people " Man, I wasted 10 years that I could've been surfing", actually it gave me a lot of wave knowledge.

[oldmansurfer]

there are advantages to bodyboarding. Back when I did it I was probably the number 1 best bodyboarder on this island and I would catch waves that regular surfers would tell me they didn't know you could do that on a paipo board. Probably what they meant was taking a steep drop and getting barreled and making it out. I think they would watch and think OMG he's going to get killed and I get barreled and come out and do it again. It wasn't much of a learning curve to go from beginner paipo boarder to number 1. Started surfing because I knew the advantage of using your body to weight and unweight which I could do a little kneeboarding but barely do it laying down or dropknee. Suddenly I am the worst surfer on the island and as good as I got I was no where near the best surfer ever (But I was pretty good at getting tubed). So it was way easier to learn to get barrelled body boarding as compared to surfing.

[oldmansurfer]

Of course back in those days no one was riding bigger waves on paipo boards except George Greenough. Where I lived paipo boarding consisted mostly of kids riding shore break waves on their sand sliding boards so it wasn't difficult to be the best. But still it didn't take much learning to get tubed paipo boarding. It took a lot to get tubed surfing.

[DFreeman]

I hired the board from a board hire place on the beach, it was called surfer boys or something boys with a green star as the logo. Was only 15 bucks for two hours to hire it!

[waikikikichan]

That stand is Star Beachboys near the snack bar and Police box.

For fun and since you were a bodyboarder, you should go all the way to the break near the zoo. That break called "Walls" is only for bodyboarders. No surfing allowed within the white buoys. Cool to see some of the kids rip stand up on their bodyboards.

[oldmansurfer]

Waikiki (by the star rental place) is a great wave to learn on. It's relatively easy to catch and ride compared to elsewhere if you ignore the crowd. If you go early in the morning there are less people.

[DFreeman]

Had another crack today on the same board and I'm having a ripper time. I'm up everytime without fail and able to ride the entire wave with ease!
The crowds aren't an issue for me, used to the crowds at snapper rocks which is always packed.
Thanks for all the help guys, can't believe I waited this long to try surfing properly. That's not to say I didn't enjoy my time boogie boarding, I still think that's awesome fun, but now I can try and master surfing!