Surfing Waves

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

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?

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

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