Help with New Board

[Al Jones]

I need a little bit of advice about buying my new board. I used to ride a custom Lazicka 9'1" Mal, i say used to because when i was in Croyde a couple of weeks ago my board got TRASHED in a road accident! It wasn't my fault so i should get the money back for it, however that could take sometime so i'm gonna have to break out the wallet and buy a new one.

With my old Mal, i found it hard to surf in waves bigger than 3ft, purely because compared to me, the board was huge. I'm 5'11" and about 11 stone, but i'm only 17 so i expect to grow for a little while yet. Lugging the board across expanses of sand was also a pain, the pins and needles in my arm made getting out of my suit a nightmare!

The board itself rode fine for me and i got on well with it. It was a little slow trying to turn it, something i expect is either down to my weight or the boards weight. I'd like something a little lighter and possibly a little shorter, how would this effect the way it rides? How different is it riding a Longboard to a fairly long Mini-mal?

I'd also like to address the size of waves i'm able to surf. I was looking into getting a Magic Carpet, does anyone have experience in riding these types of boards? Do they get into waves as easily as a longboard? Are they harder to get up on too?

Thanks very much for reading and i'd appreciated any help you can give!

-Al

[namino tsume]

umm well.... if you want to stick to longboarding i owuld suggest something in the 8' range. it would allow for more manuverablity. however if you want to go short for those bigger days i would suggest a 6'8" fish shortboard. sorry i dont know about the boards you were talking about.

what needles do you have in your arms?

[Al Jones]

Its an English expression, its the pain caused by cutting off the blood to your hand or leg or something. When it goes numb.

[namino tsume]

oh, ok. i thought you had piercings all over your arms and stuff :D . ya i get those pains sometimes too.