Want to buy my first board!

[Yatys]

so after a week away with family I got to get back on a board, so now I actually can catch most of the waves I was trying to, and want to get my own board so I can start getting used to the same board when I go, as well as actually wax the board, as the rental place does not do that, and my understanding is that make a huge difference. That's as much as I know about that, not a clue which board I should get, other than I would like a blue one.

I am 5,11 somewhere around 65kg (about 130lb) live in the northwest of the UK, main place I will be surfing is surf snowdonia in wales, lake in a quarry with a paddle that goes up and down makes a wave, they have a shop there, but the markup is beyond crazy, looked up a couple of the wetsuits they sell, they have them more than double the online price (around £650) i didn't even look at the boards after that.

any and all advice would be great!

Thanks in advance

[jaffa1949]

So Yatys, where did you got get your taste of surfing?
You might also notice Surfing waves have shop and a number of genuine sellers they connect to, the Forum is UK based so that will help.
If you rented your boards at a UK beach then the wetsuits you may have rented might give you an idea of sizing that fits you.
Do you drive? Might need to spend wave expenses on petrol, rather than moving the big paddles £35 an hour, rocks in your head!
Where are you based in NE England because a drive to a surf spot is way better value than a machine wave.
You won’t learn the real,essentials of surfing, reading the beach paddling out, turtle rolling or duck diving judging sets and figuring how to deal with the different situations that occur. Rips for instance, close out sets, stink eye.

Blue is fine , but best of all 9ftish, , hard or soft, we need to know whether you were white water catching or, green Waves.
A lot of the advice that will be offered will come from your answers.

[Yatys]

So Yatys, where did you got get your taste of surfing?
You might also notice Surfing waves have shop and a number of genuine sellers they connect to, the Forum is UK based so that will help.
If you rented your boards at a UK beach then the wetsuits you may have rented might give you an idea of sizing that fits you.
Do you drive? Might need to spend wave expenses on petrol, rather than moving the big paddles £35 an hour, rocks in your head!
Where are you based in NE England because a drive to a surf spot is way better value than a machine wave.
You won’t learn the real,essentials of surfing, reading the beach paddling out, turtle rolling or duck diving judging sets and figuring how to deal with the different situations that occur. Rips for instance, close out sets, stink eye.

Blue is fine , but best of all 9ftish, , hard or soft, we need to know whether you were white water catching or, green Waves.
A lot of the advice that will be offered will come from your answers.

I started surfing on holiday in lanzarote while I was there for a week, then didn't get much of chance to do more as at the time I was a student living in london so had no car and no money, now loved back to NW (liverpool) rented a board everywhere but didn't ever get told much about the board I was given in terms of sizes. I do drive but I only have a corsa so would need a roof rack installing which is not an issue, would the fact that a corsa rack is very short be an issue??

[jaffa1949]

Short cars racks, think minis and volkswagens with 4 surfers and four longboards ( there weren’t any other sort ) back in the day.
Ratchet tie downs all good

[Yatys]

Short cars racks, think minis and volkswagens with 4 surfers and four longboards ( there weren’t any other sort ) back in the day.
Ratchet tie downs all good

Ah ok cool, will get that sorted too, so for the board, at the moment I am only really catching already broken waves, but want to get better and start moving out to beyond the break, I assume most boards can do both?

[waikikikichan]

Sponge boards with rubber fins can be ridden at double over head wave at Pipeline on the Northshore of Oahu.
Were the boards you rented ( that weren’t allowed to be waxed ) sponge boards ?

[Lebowski]

Surf Snowdonia, whilst fun for a day out, is a very very expensive way of learning to surf. And as Jaffa says, you will learn very little compared to 'real' surfing. You won't build up any paddle strength, duckdiving skills, waves reading skills etc, and it's also a fairly unforgiving wave in my opinion. Better than nothing but you'd be far better off driving to the beach.

[Ratfinksurfer]

as well as actually wax the board, as the rental place does not do that, and my understanding is that make a huge difference.

I can't imagine riding a surfboard without wax! Unless it's a soft top. It must've been a soft top. Sorry but when I hear about someone learning how to surf in a wave pool, all I can think about is the old movie "North Shore". Go get yourself a Torq longboard and watch North Shore, that's my advice. https://www.torq-surfboards.com/home.html

[Yatys]

Sponge boards with rubber fins can be ridden at double over head wave at Pipeline on the Northshore of Oahu.
Were the boards you rented ( that weren’t allowed to be waxed ) sponge boards ?

foam, not a clue on the size they gave me, they just pointed to one on a rack

[Yatys]

Surf Snowdonia, whilst fun for a day out, is a very very expensive way of learning to surf. And as Jaffa says, you will learn very little compared to 'real' surfing. You won't build up any paddle strength, duckdiving skills, waves reading skills etc, and it's also a fairly unforgiving wave in my opinion. Better than nothing but you'd be far better off driving to the beach.

I am more than happy to drive to a beach, I just stayed half an hour up the road for a week so had a couple hours there