Selecting the Right Surfing Short Board

Mark
April 15, 2021
4:14 pm

Selecting the right surfing short board is important to maintain the fun in surfing. The progress should come before the short board selection not selecting a short board and then hoping one gets better.

Many surfers want a short board because it looks cool. However, if you can’t perform on it in the line up, pretty soon surfers aren’t allowing you room on the waves. You could get more respect riding a soft top well than a short board poorly.

Selecting the Short Board by Skills

In selecting the surfing short board, one progresses from high volume boards to lower volume boards slowly. If you start on a soft top, the first hard board might be the 7’6″ fun board. It is a gradual step that maintains width and thickness and allows for more maneuverability.

If a surfer does not visit the water frequently, they do not want to jump to a low volume short board. Paddling is tiring and a lower volume board makes sessions shorter. A shorter board requires a bigger wave arc for power, so one’s wave catching skills have to be commensurate with the board volume.

Moving shorter 6″ at a time while maintaining width and thickness is a good plan. Practice all the maneuvers and become better at them before moving to a more challenging board. Bottom turns, cut backs, accelerating, and then ripping the lip are the surfers first weapons.

Surfers can do these on soft tops so don’t think you need a short board to do them. Move to lower volume gradually as your skills improve. If you are having problems, think of improving your technique more than getting a shorter board to solve the problems.

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