Surfing Waves

thanks everyone for their response, probably i will just hire some lessons and buy a longboard.. how long the board should be and can you gime me any advice i know that the time it will take you to surf depends on how many hours you pratice and your skills but im going to do it frequently at least 4 days a week how long ot would take me to move to a shorter board? i want to know if its better just to rent one longboard and then buy a board or i just buy the longboard, thank you. and how long the board should be im 1.7 m tall