Beginner looking to start surfing

[caligearhead]

Hey there,

I'm a twenty year old guy living in California and just the other day I was reading my brother's copy of GQ where they had a surf article in it. Now, I've been thinking about surfing for quite some time ever since I moved to the City of Angels, but I was looking for the right time when I knew I could commit and I guess it's here. In that article I mentioned, they said that a beginner should always be looking for a foam board (or 'soft top' as I found out), no matter who they are. So I started Google-ing for them and I found a series of boards called Liquid Shredders (the particular one I found was a 7' 5"). They seemed alright to the untrained eye, but then I found out that the top weight for it was 160 pounds. Now, I'm in the 5'11" - 6' range and alternate between 165 - 175 pounds, so that doesn't cut it for me I presume. The 8' 2" seems to have a top weight of 180 pounds, which is, I suppose, the right one for me. And that's as far as I understood it.

Any advice on whether I'm getting this right or what else I should be looking at would be TREMENDOUSLY helpful. Thanks for reading!

[drowningbitbybit]

Right, maybe start by reading a real surf article rather than one in GQ....
There's plenty of info on this website, so start there.

Forget about buying a foamie. Go and rent a foamie for your very first lesson, but thats all about they're good for.
Go and do that first, have a couple of lessions, and see how you get on, then think about buying a board. A real one.
Its easiest to learn on a longboard (9ft+) and then you can either stick with that or get progressively shorter as you get better - but thats all about style and the kinds of wave you want to surf, which is a long way off in the future.

Now stop worrying about the 'right time' and just get out there - the longer you leave it, the longer you're missing out

[kitesurfer]

Any advice on whether I'm getting this right or what else I should be looking at would be TREMENDOUSLY helpful. Thanks for reading!

Two bits of advice for you. Follow DBBB's advice and secondly don't use awful cliches. Mentioning that you read about surfing in gq and you've moved to the city of angles will do you no favours at all. Aside from that go get a board and get in the water.

KS

[Mayday981]

Which longboards would you recommend?

[Katsura]

Doesn't matter at this stage, just don't go for a performance longboard. Go find a traditional malibu from your local Craig'slist. Anything over 9 foot, wide and thick will do.

Don't get sucked into brands.