Surfing Waves

I'm going to start with a little background info first... I'm 24 years old and I have lived in Florida near the beach on the Gulf of Mexico all my life. My dad lived in Hawaii when I was younger and one summer when I went to visit I fell in love with the Banzai Pipeline. I grew up on a Florida beach and I can't tell you how many days and nights have been spent out there. I'm 5'9" 220 lbs. I exercise and diet every day. I imagine I will be back down to about 180 within the next couple months, as that is where I was at before when I used to jog every day, which is what I am doing now. Our waves are not that big on a daily basis and from everyone I've ever talked to in my area you pretty much have to use a short board 90-95% of the time. Several years ago I bought a foam board to learn on and took it out a few times trying to learn the basics, but I ended up losing the board for reasons beyond my control. Now I really would like to get back into surfing. Boogie boarding and body surfing is fun and all, but I'd like to get into surfing. So, I have been trying to read up on info about what kind of board would be best for me and I feel I can use some help. Preferably something that I can use as I progress up a little bit. Most of my friends that surfed have either moved away or just don't surf anymore. I have found someone that will give me some lessons to get started though so at least I've got that going on for me. Anyway.... Any ideas for me?

lso, I have been looking at boards for sale and although there are way more shortboards than longboards, is it possible I have been misinformed in that only shortboards are good here because the waves don't get big enough?

Hi Blondemyke welcome back to the surfing fold.
I think a lot of people are advising you with BS to make sales from their overstocked rack of short boards, at your weight unless you are really capable you are going to have a struggle surfing a short board, I won't say it can't be done but it is a lot of work.
Forget softboards, go for a standard longboard they actually function better in the wave catching department in small surf they are more stable in the relearning balance and skills too.
I suggest you have a good read of all the advice in this forum use the search function just under where you log in.

Read this part, it is very important: Surfing is about riding what works for you and allows you to express yourself on a wave, there is no right or wrong equipment just what suits what you wish to do, BEWARE OF FASHION STATEMENTS IN SURF EQUIPMENT use what works for you.

blondemyke wrote: is it possible I have been misinformed in that only shortboards are good here because the waves don't get big enough?

"Misinformed" is something of an understatement.
As a general rule, the smaller the wave the bigger the board that is required to ride it.


(PS this isn't true in reverse)

Makes sense guys and I appreciate it and I'll get out again soon and take a look around at some more. It might be worth the extra drive to go check out some different board shops