Hi all,
Been surfing for a year on a 7'9" BIC minimal with a frequency of 1 surf trip (5 days) every 2 months. I surf in South Carolina or Florida (East Coast USA) which means crappy beach breaks 1-3ft in size, sometimes mushy and peeling, sometimes pitching, always medium-poor quality. 29 yrs old, 145lbs, 6ft tall, good physical shape, bad paddling endurance, excellent burst paddling power. I am looking to buy a second board. I am on a tight budget, but not in a hurry.
My current ability:
- Can get out to the back and surf green waves down the line.
- Can do a basic, slow bottom turn backside and front-side.
- Can trim up and down the board for speed changes and occasional pseudo hang five (no noseriding though).
- Can trim basic turns.
- Cannot carve.
- Can turtle.
- Cannot duckdive.
My goals:
- Start surfing rail to rail to gain speed.
- Do bottom turns into top turns, not just bottom turns down the line.
- Learn top turns and cutbacks.
- Be able to surf steeper waves.
- Learn duckdiving.
My questions:
1) Is my board holding me back, or can I really learn these things on my current board?
2) If the answer to the above is yes, what's the biggest size/shape board that will allow me to achieve my goals?
3) When doing 'volume calculators' on surfshop websites, even the beginner level advises me to get a board ~5'9" for my weight, and the board sizes ~6'3" are supposedly for someone weighing around 200lbs. What are the negative effects of having too much volume? Roughly where will I start having these negative effects?
4) The description of a fish sounds perfect -- lots of buoyancy, easy to catch waves in crappy conditions. These generally run very small though so I am not sure if these are a good idea. What are the downsides of getting a fish?
5) For a shortboard, how big can I go before the board will not be able to easily achieve my goals. What are the downsides to getting a very big/fat shortboard?
6) I have strong kicking in swimming and want to be able to use my kicking power when catching waves. What size board would be too big to kick?
Thanks in advance.