New surfer and could only afford a short board

[TritonSurf34]

So I'm new to surfing, and I didn't have 400$ or whatever it cost to get a long board and then upgrade in some time.
I went on craigslist and found a surfboard for 70$ It's a lot taller than me. I'm only 5'3 and that's maybe 5'10 or 6ft?
It's a GEE glass thruster fin board.
I mean I've skateboarded, Longboarded, Skimboarded (Wooden), boogie boarded, just not surfed.
So I mean.. Would I be okay with this?
And why is it such a NO NO for beginners to get short boards and all that?

[oldmansurfer]

It's a lot easier to start on a larger board. Easier to paddle, easier to catch waves, easier to stand up on, and even easier to lay on or sit on. However the reason people may tell you to not get a shortboard isn't that a complete newbie can't learn to surf on one, it is that the learning curve is much greater and it is more difficult to do everything on a shortboard....that is more difficult until you learn then it is much easier to ride if you want to do the variety of maneuvers that shortboards do. So there are probably a lot of surfer-wanabes who start with a shortboard and end up abandoning surfing altogether because it is too difficult. But if you have the drive to learn and are willing to stick it out then learning on a shortboard is the way to go.

[TowelCircus]

Hi, post the exact dimension s of the board, but for 70 $ it s probably a dead one. Give us your age and weight.
I agree with OMS btw. But as your 5'3, 6' is a longer board. Problem is, and it's a big one, if you buy a 6' it's aint gonna be shaped for someone who is 5'3 and it's probably not a beginner board.

[dtc]

have a read through this viewtopic.php?f=39&t=23109

But as the oldman says - its harder to learn, not impossible. Do you have the time/patience/willingness to struggle for, I dont know, lets say 40 to 50 hours before you start feeling sort of starting to get beginner competent. If you are surfing every day this is only a few months, if you are surfing once a week it might take you a year. A longboard probably 1/2s that time

[peazz]

I have to agree with Old man surfer 100%.

If you can get in the water daily and you REALLY want to learn to surf and rip a wave then by all means get yourself a shortboard. I surfed logs twice before getting my own board and even that was pretty short for a first board (I am 5"5 first board was 6"3).

I had fun on it in typhoon swell over in Hong Kong but ended up going ot australia (originally for 3 weeks, ended up there for 9 weeks and doing 3/4 of the east coast) and ended up buying myself a 5"9 shorty.

I did not catch anything for at least 2 weeks, not down to the fact I did have the skill but because I did not have the strength required to get the board going not only that regardless of how much i "thought I knew" the shortboard showed me that I was still an absolute beginner.

9 weeks later and I feel i came away an intermediate surfer, having been on a variety of breaks / conditions at all tide levels, Able to pull off a decent bottom turn but now making that transition to bottom to top surfing - in my last week there, the 2-5ft swell that was rolling through left me wanting it to get bigger.

The sweet and curly;

If you can surf daily, have pure passion and drive to surf as well as the willingness to change your life style - Get a short board, but be warned its not easy and much more then just paddling every day - Sleep, Eat well, Excercise & Passion will get you far.

Good luck

[dtc]

Keep in mind that peazz already know how to surf (a bit) and still struggled.

[oldmansurfer]

One other thing I would say about learning to surf on a shortboard and that is that it's probably ideal to learn on a state of the art board made for a person your size. That way you learn on a good board and you will learn what a good board does and how to surf it. You avoid bad habits from trying to make the wrong board work for you. I was fortunate to learn on a board that was good for me even once I got good at it (42 years ago). I quit for a while and restarted on a longboard and now surf a funboard made for an old, out of shape, over weight dude (me). I probably would have learned quicker with the funboard but since I was just going to be a weekend warrior and I had some nagging injuries I wasn't too sure how it was going to go and I didn't know any active shapers at the time. That said though the longboard made it real easy to catch waves and gave me a chance to build up my muscles to keep me from having problems.