I’ve been following the thread “beginner board” and it has me thinking about getting a softtop for my gf. I can see the glassed board beating a newbie up pretty well and I want the first experiences to be as best as possible to. I would def max sizing at an 8’ but was wondering if she could get away with a 7’? I don’t think much smaller would be applicable but open to opinions.
She’s 29, 135ish, pretty coordinated, and been out a couple of times on a 8’ x 22” glassed board. She’s actually pretty good at paddling and bodyboarding with the glassed board but hasn’t tried standing yet.
I stay with the glassed board but she’s been getting pretty beat up getting through the shorebreak, and has come close to a head-knocker after pearling it a couple of times.
Borrow or rent and 8’6" for her first go out or two. Once she’s got a bit of confidence up get her a 7’ softie and performance oriented fins to do more than just point and gluide. My mother got smacked in the face back in the early sixties on my dad’s longboard. To this day she wishes it was a soft board. She says she’d probably would be surfing to this day.
i disagree completely. You’ll be wasting your money on a softer board for her. Maybe rent a softboard and spend a full weekend surfing and then put her on a glass board. Buy a BIC if you gotta buy her a board - at least that will last a little longer.
The “softtop” by surftech (I know this is blasphemy but c’mon, anyone here hand shape beginner foamies?) is the probably the most durable of the softies since it has an epoxy core. Al lot of people now use “soft top” universally to describe all soft boards which leads to confusion. “Soft boards” are soft all the way through and they get water logged really fast. My friend is a County Lifeguard and he let me try some of the County’s paddle/ longboards that were softtops and they were really fun in crappy waves. They surfed much better than expected.
The downside about softtops is that the surface has so much traction that it will start causing nasty painful rashes after a couple of hours of surfing. The doyle and BZ softies wont have this problem since they are like giant boogie boards. If your girlfriend will surf most the year with a full suite, than you may want to go with the softtop. If she surfs a lot in a springy or trunks than stay away from the softtop as a bz will be far less painful. There is no way to escape the painful rash of a soft top if you are surfing more than 5 hours a week and trust me it is really painful. I would rather faceplant into a hard board anyday than endure one of those painful rashes.
P.S.
Yeah Los Angeles County contracts with surftech for much of their equipment instead of a local craftsman (could local shaper make a softboard?) as they also contract out for their vehicles with Nissan instead of an American Car Manufacturer (do those exist anymore? I heard most Fords are made in Mexico). Go figure.
New softboards are being made with better rails, rocker and fins than in past years. True there is some real junk out there. But, in those esoteric traveling quivers that pro’s like Machado, Donovan and their crew you’ll now find a softie for just going out and having fun. The gap is narrowing between hard boards and soft. And for people with apprehension about getting hit, soft boards soften the blow.
A good whack by a glassed board could def be determental to her confidence and enthusiam. I’m def going for the softtop. Plus, the dent on my buddy’s T100 tailgate would not be there if she had the softtop earlier. Dropped her towel while holding the board, swung to pick it up before it hit the ground, and wham… That’s gonna cost me a lot of beer - Sorry Paul!!
I think the renting a larger one for a few days is probably a good answer to get her on feet. Will a 7 be enough to float her after that though - seems logical that it would? I didn’t know that some soak water/some not. Is this a huge issue? How does one tell which will, which won’t?
As with all surf products there are domestic manufacturers and there are offshore mass produced cost point stuff. Custom X, INT, SoftCore, Szabad, and Vortex are all customers of ours. Doyle, BZ, Hobie, G&S have each gone offshore.
Not for nothing, but is’nt there something amiss when a surboard bumps into a truck and the TRUCK gets damaged? You may think I’m getting off the subject here, but think again - imported truck, probably US made board.
Come to think of it, who did make that board? If it’s that strong I think I want one.
Board is an ‘In the Eye’ by Scott Busbey in Cape Hatteras, NC. This thing would dent and tank and not have scratch on it. Scott makes boards to last - it has a hard 17 years on it and there are no signs of it even close to calling it quits.
Tom - I’m going to search those former leads. Thanks…
I’ve never heard of Busbey. But, if it’s 17 years old you’ll find out real quick if it’s going to suck water. The seller should at least give you an oppurtunity to wet down the board and find out if it’s significantly heavier afterwards. If it doesn’t and it’s a deal in your opinion, go for it. You can always upgrade the fins later.
I say get her a real board and let her take her lumps. That’s how you learn to avoid the board collisions. Duck and cover, falling flat, diving deep,etc. Am I too hard core? My wife(girl friend then) wanted me to teach her to surf. Started with learning how to paddle. That’s as far as she got thank God. Mike
soft top boards are still hard and no different to fibreglass boards…I use them at my surfschool, for a little advanced students, for beginners always a sponge type board. if i was choosing between soft tops (rubber glued 2 fibreglass) and fibreglass board i would pick the fibreglass…doyle makes a good beginner board…very soft and you can ride waves on them without getting hurt…aloha cheyne
Good point Cheyne. I was looking at the soft top surftechs in Galyans (now theres an argument starter) because my friend works there. I was not too impressed with the safety aspect. The top is soft and might prevent against falling directly on top of the board, but otherwise is hard. the bottom is hard and the nose would do some serious damage although part of the rubber covers it.
go with fiberglass and she will learn to respect the dangerous equiptment she is riding. just like people who learn with leashes fail to understand that there is still a 6’ (at least) diameter in which to hit people.
ALTHOUGH, i have no girlfriend nor the patience to teach her anyway!
I think myself, Cheyne, and NY Garage Shaper are in agreement. Please correct me if I am wrong.
1)A Soft Board like a doyle or BZ is probably the best choice since it is the most forgiving but it will water log and may not last too long.
2)A polyester or epoxy hard board would be the second best option. Inherent danger but it will reinforce some important lessons and she will get here eventually.
3)Softtop by surftech is a trade mark product. It is an epoxy board with soft grippy cushion glued over it. Almost as a hard as a glass board making it only slightly less dangerous (hard bottom and sharp skeg). The soft grippy surface also will rip human flesh around the thigh area where skin grips onto the rails.
Well you can’t get any safer or as much floatation for the size as you can with an ULI board.
It might not ride all that well, but might be neat to keep as a traveler. You could get away with a 6’ or 7’ ULI
True softies are real hard to ride.
A good 10’ or 12’ might be the call.
The problem with girls or ladies is getting their arms around a 24" wide 10’ or 12’ tanker to paddle, usually it’s only an elbow kind of action they can get until they get the full stroke motion down.
so you’ll need to think about width as well cause it’ll make paddling it and sitting a little easier.
A narrower board is also easier to manage pushing through the whitewater unless they are going to turn turtle all the time on the way out.
One design is the 8’0 surftech softie hybrid or something similar like the NSP Betty models.
But again for bumping heads the ULI will never hurt…