Surfing Waves

Friends,
I am looking for some advice here. I am 54 yo, 5'10" and 197lbs (~20% body fat). After a lot of struggles (my enthusiasm and diligence far exceeds my athletic ability) I feel that I have now mastered popping up and riding on the mush on my 8ft (22.5"x3.25") and 9 ft (24”x3.5”) foam surfboards. I am now attempting to paddle out back to start working on green waves. Having a lot of difficulty doing so. The 8 ft feels too unstable (I'd like more width) and the 9ft feels too buoyant and floaty and I spend all my energy on manhandling the board.

Would it be a good idea to now get a 9ft Malibu longboard or should I just stay the course? In my mind I feel like I would be better off with a 8' or 8'6" that is a bit wider than my 8' foam board since I have very broad shoulders.
Thank you for the feedback, friends!
P.S. I am also spending more time swimming now to increase my paddling strength.

CarlsbadSurfer52 wrote:Would it be a good idea to now get a 9ft Malibu longboard or should I just stay the course? In my mind I feel like I would be better off with a 8' or 8'6" that is a bit wider than my 8' foam board since I have very broad shoulders.
Thank you for the feedback, friends!
P.S. I am also spending more time swimming now to increase my paddling strength.

Get a 9ft board - maybe have a look at the walden mega magic, its nice and wide. Although shoulder width isnt really something that is used to determine the width you want; once you stand up the size of your shoulders is not all that relevant. Its only if your shoulders are too narrow to paddle a board of a given width that its relevant

Width is not the only factor in stability; overall surface area is also relevant - so length is a factor. I mean, potentially you could get an 8'6 if its wide and thick as well and it wont make a huge difference.

Hardboards are usually more stable than foam because of better bottom contours and rails. However, the biggest contribution to stability is speed - and the one thing you dont get much of in mush is speed. So dont immediately discount continuing to use your softboards - once you get up on a green wave they will be more stable than they are now. If you cant stand up on an 8ft foam board that is 22.5 inches wide, getting a hard board (especially an 8ft one) wont help all that much. You will still be falling off (which is fine, you are a beginner so you fall off, thats part of the process)

In terms of the 9ft being buoyant - yes, while volume is useful to catch waves, too much volume can be hard to handle (why SUPs are impossible in breaking surf). A hard board will be less buoyant than a foamie, although you will absolutely still need to learn how to turtle roll effectively.

In any case - I'm all for people moving off foam boards, but it may just require you to practice a bit more on your current board and accept that its not the board creating issues, its your lack of skill at this time. And you only overcome that with practice.

But if you want to move to a hard board, by all means do so. I suggest a 9ft board, although a wide/thick 8'6 is ok

You should be able to catch waves out the back on the 9 footer, especially given its dimensions of 24 wide and 3.5inch thick. The issue is going to be your skill/experience/knowledge when it comes to catching green waves.


Going from whitewater waves to catching green waves is a major transition in surfing. Unfortunately its also another major hurdle in the learning process which will lead to many frustrating hours in the water if on the wrong equipment. I wouldn't even bother with the shorter foam board until you're catching waves consistently on the 9 footer, as a longer board will glide better than a shorter board.

Thanks Blackvans1234 and dtc.