Boardchoice: Which surfboard is best for you?
Photo by: Mitch Nieuwenhuizen
Choosing a perfect surfboard for your height / weight / surf level and the type of waves you want to surf with it is quite complex. Once you have chosen a suitable board you will notice that you catch more waves, you surf smoother and just have more fun in the water .. In this article I will take you through my search for my current surfboard and how to easily create your own surfboard is coming.
When I was 7 years old, I started taking surf lessons at Scheveningen. Those first times I was on a soft top; lots of volume, nice and stable, easy to catch waves and not too much pain if you hit it against your head. Great for taking the first steps: paddle, get up, take a careful turn and catch unbroken waves. Soon I wanted to not only take lessons, but also just get into the water myself. For my eighth birthday I asked for a real surfboard. It became the well-known 7’6 hardtop from BIC, which countless surfers have learned before me.
A few years, and a lot of surf sessions, later I wanted to try something new. In the meantime I worked as a helper at the surf school and if I was lucky I could test some boards that had a little more "performance" than that thick BIC. I soon fell in love with a red and white Angulo 7'4, a real mini malibu as we call it. A board with a lot of volume that made it easy for me to catch waves, but much lighter than that BIC so that a bottom and top turn suddenly became an option again. Soon after, my first real board followed, which I had won for a special but irrelevant reason in a competition on the Internet, a 6'3 Klimax. A real shortboard! And I loved it!
But this board was exactly the mistake that almost every surfer makes. Disregarding my height, weight and level, I started surfing on my far too radical 6'3. It took a while, but at some point I realized that I was catching a lot less waves, that I only seemed to surf worse, and that surfing was more frustrating than satisfaction. On the advice of more experienced surfers I managed to get a fish, just what I needed. Thanks to the volume, the larger tail and wide nose I could easily catch waves, but also make turns.
After the fish, the traditional shortboard came back into the picture. The first board I bought after that fish was a 5'6, but still with a wider nose and a lot of volume. I have been surfing for a number of years now on boards that are more high performance because this is the style of surfing that I would like to develop. That choice for a high performance board was also fueled by my passion for competitive surfing. When you get into that a bit, your board choice develops naturally. The last board I ordered was a 5'11, 18 ”3 / 4.2” 5/16 and had 26.5 liters of volume. A truly high performance board, made for fast, radical turns in hollow and more powerful waves.
I now know quite a bit what works for me and what doesn't. Ultimately it is a matter of trying and playing with different models and shapes. In the Netherlands, for example, I always rode boards with a slightly wider nose, but recently I ordered a board with less nose to be able to surf more vertically.
How do you choose the right surfboard?
When choosing the right board, a number of factors are important: your height and weight, your level (be realistic!), The style of surfing you aspire to and the waves you want to use the board on. Using a "surfboard volume calculator" (like the bottom of the article) gives you an easy tool to find out how many liters you need (roughly). I myself end up with 27 liters, but in weak waves I like to have some extra volume while in high hollow surf I want a little less volume. For a beginner who still wants to learn the basics, a fun or longboard from 8 "to 9" is ideal, volume means catching waves and that's what it's all about.
If you have mastered the basics a bit, you can go shorter, but do not go too short. Keep it wide and make sure you have enough volume in the nose and under your chest. Whether you ultimately want to shortboard or longboard, it starts with a good foundation, and you learn that by practicing a lot on a board with volume.
The search for your dream board never really ends. In any case, do not let yourself be guided too much by your ambition in the search, but let yourself be informed by experienced surfers or someone in a surf shop. Each board has something to offer, as long as it comes into your life at the right time.
5 tips to choose your perfect surfboard:
Choose the right volume (see surfboard volume calculator at the bottom of the article)
Take into account what waves you are going to surf the board (larger waves are a little less volume, smaller waves a little more volume)
Be critical of your own fitness (choose more volume if you have a bad paddle condition, or do paddle training)
Start with a standard shape
Test, test, test! Visit a local surf school that sells your desired board and test it at least 5x before you actually buy it
Do you have any specific questions about the right surfboard for you? Ask all your surf questions in the ”Tips for surfers, by surfers" group on facebook.
Surfboard volume recommendation chart:
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