Advice for a beginner board

[noodles83]

Hola a todos!

Tired of renting and depending on others I decided to buy my first board but here the thing...

My profile
Beginner level - 174cm (68) x 70kg (155)

Short surf history
I am a beginner who was progressing well last year when I could surf every day for 3 months in the Pacific... I started with a soft 8' then moved to a hard 8'4" then to an 8' on which I moved to green waves. I cannot remember the liters, but I think something around 55L.
I also tried a couple of times a 7'.4" but I felt I was progressing much more with the 8'. I could catch green waves (3-4ft), I was trying to cut the wave and not going just straight.

Then I stopped for some months until the beginning of this year when I moved to Spain.

This year I surfed only 2 times in the Atlantic with a soft 7'4" (3-4ft waves). Here most of the places rent only soft boards to beginners.

Here my question
I want to buy a surfboard for this summer season in the Mediterranean sea, we are talking about super small waves (1-2ft) just to get back on track for the next winter season and having some fun in the meantime.

So I was looking at some soft board...

- 6' × 21" 1/8 × 2" 3/4 (46L)
and
- 7' x 22" 5/8 x 3 5/8 (55L)
I am looking at shorter ones, only because those are soft and I was on a 8' hard, so I am thinking that if I have to get back to a soft maybe I can decrease the size.

Considering my current level and surf history what kind of board would you recommend?
Ideally, I would like to think in terms of progression and of moving later on to a hard one again.