Moving from 9 2 long board to 7 6 mini mal - please help!

[Drive27]

Hey guys,

recently returned from Aus where i was surfing a 9 2 long board once a month for about two years.

Have decided to move down to a 7 6 mini mal in the UK, buying a Roger Cooper, and read a post on here that suggested some learning/thinking away from the waves is good preparation. So, if anyone has any comments on what I can expect, moving down to a smaller board, and how I can make that transition as productive as possible, would be really great to hear

thanks, drive27

[dtc]

The biggest change is positioning for catching the wave. You will be used to sitting much further out and will constantly find yourself out of position with the wave passing by (if you are lucky) or caught on the lip (if you arent lucky). Even though a 7ft6 still allows you to be further out, you will be taking later drops. There are also consequential issues eg when a bomb set comes in you have to paddle even further to get over the wave before it breaks (one big problem with mid lengths is that you cant sit way out the back and get over the bomb sets easily, but you cant sit further in and just duck dive through the bigger waves - so you can end up in no mans land, neither far enough in to catch the wave but still too far in to easily make it over the bomb sets)

Once you have caught the wave you probably wont find it hugely different - you still will need to move your back foot back over the fins and all of that stuff. You will notice that the 'glide' is definitely less, so you have to think a bit more about speed and so forth.

[Oldie]

I tested this in our last vacation. Im am only a beginner with 40 surfing days experience and normally ride a 9.0 longboard and tested a 7.6 out of curiosity. i found that the sweetspot on the board for your body position is much smaller, so you easily are too far back or forward. I also found myself often in the no mans land that dtc describes above as it was not possibe to catch waves as early as with my Longboard. And padddling is harder, too. Once riding it was more fun, but in the end i catched significantly less waves.

[saltydog]

My experience mirrors Oldie's. My current board is 9' but I also have a 8' minimal and a 7' egg. that I take out on a rare occasion. In addition to everything that's been mentioned if you are tall enough you may have to pop up with your knees alone (not using toes) on 7'6 which needs some getting used to.