Surfing Waves

Hi everyone....been mulling over this one since I started surfing to be honest, which was only 2 years ago....I'm on a 7'6" minimal at the moment, I can catch green waves, ride down the line sometimes (wave conditions allowing)....
However I like to be challenged and the idea of a shortboard is appealing, especially duck diving on bigger days.
I'm 41 now and I'm pretty fit, but I'm wondering if now is the right time to get on a short board....it's a case of getting older/losing fitness versus experience!
I'm planning on buying a new board this summer, pay increase pending.....I'm 6ft weigh about 12st...please suggest a board I can still catch waves easily on but duck dive.

Many thanks

Jase

Oh, good grief, stop worrying about it and just do it

Dont go silly and get a waferthin board, and you'll be fine (or at least no more wobbly than the rest of us).
Something with a bit of volume and not too performance orientated - something like
6'6 x 20 1/2" x 2 3/4, with a wide-ish outline so there's some volume up-front, and a swallow tail.

Easy

If you can catch green waves and ride down the line sometimes I'd stick with a mini-mal if I were you. You are not going to be able to do anything on a short board that you can't do on a mini-mal at this stage. The only difference will be your wave count. If it's a challenge you are after, try doing a floater on your mal, ride down the line all the time, do a decent bottom turn/top turn combo. It sounds like you aren't bored with your board, but with your progression.

See can you rent a shortboard or borrow one and see for yourself. Shortboards are great if you can make the most of them. Otherwise they are just wobbly, clumsy, hard to paddle planks. I don't think your age would be a problem if you put the time in on one. Just that, at the stage you sound like you are at, I don't see the point.

A short board for me is like a good song! I can really rock if I turn up the volume

No you are not, but at our age (I'm 46) you need to transition a little slower, like I did. So, your next board should be a 7'0 to 7'2 shortboard but that has some volume, at least 2 5/8 to 2 3/4 thick, at least 20" wide. Then after 6 months to a year go down again, etc...

It's a more expensive way to do it, but if you go down straight to, say, a 6'2 you will struggle for a long time, like garbarage stated, doing it gradually will allows you to still keep cathing waves while going down in size

I'm a bit younger, but anyway. I changed from a minimal 7 ' 6 recently to a shortboard 6 ' 10 (plenty of volume, 20'' and 2 3/4) and tried 6 ' 4 a few times. Duckdiving is much easier, especially on the 6 ' 4. In fact, after using these boards, I realised that "duckdiving on a minimal" is an oxymoron. You really need small boards to do that. Catching waves was the same or sometimes a little harder or easier, depending on conditions. The only real difficulty of changing the minimal to 6 ' 10 was that the 6 ' 10 was faster and sometimes it was too fast on the takeoff.

This being said, I'm still a beginner, interpret my feedback accordingly. I'd say, go for it.

Could be worse_______too short for an old board.

Ok, so I took the plunge and did get another board....
Got a Forth speed fish, 6'6" long.....took it out for it's first go today. It paddles real easy, nearly as easy as the minmal. Getting out the back is certainly a lot easier, duck diving instead ot turtle rolling it, although I am a complete novice to the duck dive.....got dragged back a few times, maybe a timing issue or not getting deep enough?
Can pop up on it no problem too, as I've always been able to pop up without using my feet on the board, as they always hung off the end of the minimal...once up and riding it's sweet! So much easier to turn it.....got it set up as a quad fin at the moment.
One issue I did have was placing myself to catch a wave and when to start paddling....I'm used to being out pretty deep on the mal and paddling early. Looks like a bit of adjustment is needed here.
The other benefit is the fish fits in my car, a lot easier too, so no need to put up on the rack. Amazing how much drag a board on top creates! Used 3/4 of the normal amount of fuel...
I'll certainly keep tha mal for small days, but I'm really glad I took the plunge.

jasedrummer wrote: .....got it set up as a quad fin at the moment.

One issue I did have was placing myself to catch a wave and when to start paddling....I'm used to being out pretty deep on the mal and paddling early. Looks like a bit of adjustment is needed here.

Cool to see that it worked out.

I ride my board as a quad all the time, my bud likes it as a twin but I did not. I have found that I like my set up smaller than usual. It came with big fins, MR fins, with side fins in back. I have switched to size 5 (medium) fins with GX center fins in back and find that it still has enough hold but gets into waves much easier. The back fins made a huge difference, the back side fins had too much drag, the center work much better for my taste.

I sold my mal soon after getting my fish, I take off the back fins on small days and catch just as many waves, try it next time it gets smaller.

I've never thought about drag from the fins before.....is that mainly caused by angling your take off into a wave?
I will have a play around with the fin set up next time I'm out. If I tried a twin fin set up should I keep the 2 smaller fins on the side up front, or use the larger GX fins that the board came with?

Fins will make some difference to how the board feels and rides, but won't make a huge difference to how well it catches a wave (a bit, yes, but as you've only just got the board, I doubt that's the problem).

As you've already worked out, you need to be inside of where you'd be on a longer board. And you need to commit to a wave, turn the board and start paddling earlier - way before it jacks up you need to have some paddling speed. On a longboard, the wave will catch you pretty easily, but on a shortboard you need to match your speed to the wave and catch it.

Also, of course, catching waves on a shortboard is considerably harder than on a longboard and takes a lot of practise - don't expect it to all fall into place in one session

jasedrummer wrote: I've never thought about drag from the fins before.....is that mainly caused by angling your take off into a wave?

A board without fins has no drag, with fins it does. Bigger fins have more drag than smaller ones. There are other small factors like cant and toe in.

jasedrummer wrote: I will have a play around with the fin set up next time I'm out. If I tried a twin fin set up should I keep the 2 smaller fins on the side up front, or use the larger GX fins that the board came with?

On small days keep the bigger fins up front and take out the back fins. Having the small fins by themselves will cause your board to slide around too much.

Couple guys in their 60's at my break on small boards...all has to do with skill and size and determination.
A nice punchy wave always helps on a shorty as well.
Nothing makes a shortboard more useless than gutless surf!