Beginner surfers progress to short boards by mastering the fundamentals, practice, and patience. It takes a year for someone to move from a soft top to a short board if they get to practice often. It is not easy progress.
The difficulties of a short board (under 6’10”) for surfers is they are more difficult to paddle ( paddling stamina), more difficult for catching waves, and more difficult to ride.
Master the Fundamentals
The fundamentals surfers learn on a soft top include learning to paddle the board balanced, catching waves, popping up, and riding in the proper posture. Weakness in any one of these fundamentals will result in crashes as you progress to bigger waves.
Learning Short Board Characteristics
Everything has to be near perfect to properly catch a real wave on a short board. Timing is first. The real wave breaks in a few seconds as it arcs and the short board has to be in the right position to catch the wave at the top one third of the arc. Surfers let the wave roll under them and then paddle hard down the face.
The Pop Up
The pop up has to place surfers front foot in the right spot and the body has to be square to the front of the board to ride down the face. Soft top surfers who fall off the wave right away are often “snowboarding” with a shoulder back which turns the butt over the rail and causes a fall.
The short board is not stable for the beginner/intermediate. It wants to wander wildly if the surfers body is not in the exact right spot and posture. Catching the wave is the beginning. Short board need to ride in the pocket. Learning to ride the pocket requires the bottom turn and then acceleration for speed.
Take Your Time
Take your time learning the fundamentals. An 8′ Wave Storm soft top can ride real waves up to 7′. Surfers can learn a lot by taking a long time moving to a hard board. When you do, move shorter just 6″ at a time and maintain the width and thickness of the bigger boards. Have fun.
For Surf Lessons in Oceanside, see the Home Page
For a video on my Dry Land and in Water Demo for soft tops.
For a video on Catching Real Waves.