Surfing Waves

hey guys. i just moved near a beach recently (from IL, where surfing does not exist), and i'm really looking forward to trying out surfing. unfortunately, my money is limited, and, during the week, i live about 2 hours away (in lakeland, florida), so there aren't any surf shops here.. but i'll be back in melbourne from thurs-sun this weekend.

where is a good place to find used boards? i'm going to have to go used for it to be in my budget. do surf shops generally have some used equipment? maybe pawn shops around there? i don't remember seeing any last weekend, but i'm sure there are a few.

the internet seems to be a fairly bad place to get one, with shipping costs and all. the classifieds in last week's newspaper didn't help, either.

i'm impatient and excited to get out there.. and having to buy a used board is going to make it a little more difficult to get started. maybe you guys have some other suggestions?

Sometimes you can find a good board at a pawn shop, but make sure its in good condition. A lot of surfshops have some used boards but you8 can always just rent a board until you find the board you want to buy.

ahh i didn't think about renting. what is a fairly normal price to rent for a day? or is it hourly? and is it the surf shops that rent boards most of the time?

In the UK, board rental is really good value.

Normally £8 (around $12) will get you a board and wetsuit for the day!! Multiple day hires are even cheaper.

If you rent a few times and decide you want to get a board of your own, check out some of the millions of threads about boards on this site - they will tell you what to look out for!

Oh yeah - I wouldn't buy a board you can't see first - ie Online or from an ad in the paper/ shop window!!