Surfboard Size... your opinion please ?

[djhowly]

Hey Everyone!

So question, I am looking at a John carpenter surfboard that is 7'6" by 20.75 wide by 2.75 thick. I am 6ft even weigh about 220lbs and am in average shape. My question is do you think this is a good board for me. For the last 2 months I have been surfing on an 8ft soft top about twice a week and can get up on it majority of the time and I am ready for a more fun serious board. I am surfing in Huntington Beach CA.

So what do you pros think is the surfboard mentioned above going to be a good step for me??? My worry is it may be a little on the thin side as far as the width is concerned.

[dtc]

The standard/honest/conservative reply is that its a bit small. Softboards can give a bit of an illusion, because they are very floaty. So an 8ft softboard probably is roughly equivalent to a 9ft+ 'normal' board in a lot of ways (paddling, wave catching etc). Just because you can surf an 8ft soft top doesnt mean you should now go down in size. A 9ft longboard will almost certainly be more suitable and a much better learning board.

I agree that is a pretty narrow board - my concern is that its probably a board designed for larger waves (chest high+) and those arent the waves you want to be /will be surfing as a beginner. It will work on smaller waves but might get hung up (ie not glide down the wave), will require faster and later takeoffs/pop ups etc. But I'm not sure without knowing more about it.

The 'take a chance' advice is that the board you have suggested might be ok but might be frustrating and take a long time for you to start catching waves with. I reckon from the time you can stand in white water until you are a competent beginner on unbroken waves, surfing a longboard, is about 50 hours of surfing time (give or take). For a shorter board it will probably be longer. Surfing 2X per week it might take you 4-5 months to get to that standard with the proposed board; say 3 months with a longboard. However, the first month with the shorter board might be a month of not catching any waves and just not much fun. But you should still be able to get there.

Is there a reason why you want to have a 7ft6 board over, say, a longboard? Or is it just that you have found a board that is within your price range?

So, in short - its not a terrible board, but its not the best. It might be suitable but it will probably result in a longer learning curve. You might find it doesnt work too well on small/weak waves. Up to you!

[djhowly]

I decided on a 7', 6" mainly because most of the board shops I talked to in Huntington said it would be a good mid length board to get started on. Also, to experiment I also purchased a used 7ft soft top a few weeks back and I'm able to get up on that, so I figured a 7,6 did sound about right to me and the one I did mention is in my price range.

[dtc]

Well I wont repeat what I said above; I will say that many surf shops are run by people who think 6ft3 is a big board and they think 7ft6 is enormous. They just cant fathom longboards and cant imagine riding them (will call them 'boats' or similar); so unfortunately most shops just recommend boards they think are huge but are often still too short. I guess its like a race car driver recommending a porsche to a learner driver, because a porsche is not really that fast.

Anyway, if that is the board you think is good for you, then get it. You arent going to learn to surf thinking about what board to buy.