Big hello from the north of Brasil!
Hope someone can give me some advice on buying my next board. I moved here to Natal, Brazil a few months ago and promptly bought a second hand board to learn to surf. I have had surfboards before and used to dabble in the sport when I lived elsewhere but I never really got the hang of it because (I think) I couldn’t go regularly enough - too cold or no waves or work issues. Now I have lots of free time and go every morning for a couple of hours so it’s finally coming along. Problem is my board is leaking so needs some serious repair, which I will undertake on my own, but I want to replace it right away with a more suitable general purpose stick. I am figuring out now that my current board is a sort of semi gun at 6 8, only 18 inches wide, narrow nose and tail and thin. I only weigh 137 pounds but can dick dive the thing. It works fine in larger surf (yesterday and the day before we had 6 to 9 feet faces, man was that fun!) but the board does not work at all in small 2 to 3 foot waves as it doesn’t plane at low speed… or maybe I don’t know how to use it under those conditions. Everyone tells that it was absolutely the wrong board for learning but too late now, I’ve been learning despite it but want to take this opportunity now to go shorter and wider but don’t know by how much. I’ve looked at a nice 6 1 swallow tail thats 19 wide and pretty thick and some 6 3, 6 4 boards but holding them, they really seem very voluminous to me compared to my semi gun. If I were an accomplished surfer, people tell me that a 5 11 or 6 0 would suit me for the short, fast shore break around here but I am thinking I might need a “transition” board to hasten my learning. So my question is, if I go with a thick 6 4, in what way will all that volume inhibit my surfing or is stability the goal now? What about a 5 10 fish? I’m thinking it might be a good small wave option both for learning and then I perhaps might not have to trade it in for something else later if I become competent (I am keeping my fingers crossed on this one). What are my other options? I don’t want a fun board because I want to duck dive and I also hate being tossed around by the waves, which is what happens to scrawny me with a big board (I learned that at surf school a few years back). I guess I should add that I have done tons of snowboarding so the going sideways thing is pretty comfortable for me. The hardest part of learning has been getting my shoulders and back in shape but I can go out for 2 to 3 hours at a time now so now my “performance” is more a matter of picking the right days and the right break. Anyway, I think surfing is fantastic even if I’m not ripping or even catching a lot of waves but I sure would love to “dominate” the waves as one local put it. Right now I’d have to say that in my case it’s the other way around (being dominated!) but I am improving contantly and I know my equipment isn’t exactly optimum at the moment so hope you can help me.
Cheers and thanks,
T