New to Surfing

Sorry can't comment on the boards. Mate I'm fairly new to surfn and just keep goin out. Took to it at an older age also. Just stick with it and soon you'll be standing, doin bottom turns, trimmn etc. I mostly go out with experienced surfers who give me heaps of tips like when to take off, where to paddle to to get the good banks etc.. All the best with the board mate. I'm a bit taller and heavier than you so I started with a 7'4" mini mal from Dukes on the GC. I ride smaller boards now but the mini mal was great to learn on and still ride it in smaller surf. Don't know much about the gongs waves so local knowledge is best. cheers bro

Make sure you're committed if you're going to be spending hard earned cash on a board/s, nothing more depressing than having a mate that starts surfing only to stow away his board in the shed and let it gather dust.

trick is get up as soon as u know you are up to speed with wave then push up onto your feet the longer u wait you'l have less balance the top of wave and first momentum gives you drive forward like a motor bike as soon as the wave starts to catch up its like standing on your bike and not moving.also never sit too far on board so you nose dive when trying to get up try feel for a center where your nose sits out off the water the water but back end not digging in. Always practice just goin to shore first when u get 50 percent of your standing happening then rember back foot sits way back and front foot centerish depending on board size and lean to side u wanna turn slightly and use your weight on back of board digging in to make your turns good luck ask ne thing you want glad to try help

I've been surfing for two years (but only just got my license to take it more seriously). I thought I'd be fine on a 6'6 board and it wasn't the right choice for me. When beginning to learn to surf, the bigger the board, the better. It will help you stand a lot more. I'm now using a 7'6 fibre glass and it's great! It's the pointed nose and not mal, so it also helps me to start getting the feel of turning the board. Good luck! The money spent on the board is well worth it! Surfing's one of the best things I've taken up!

The bigger boards are good to learn on and get your paddling strength but they are harder to duckdive so you might grow out of it quickly. I learnt the hard way starting off with a regular shorty and getting nailed for weeks. Dunno whats the best approach tho, being older probably the longer board might be a good choice.

I was gonna write you off Rob, call you a impatient teenager.

But then I saw your age! You're an impatient middle-ager!

It's no suprise that you're not getting to your feet after just six go outs. Certainly having a longer board would help (as others have said,) but I wouldn't be worried that you're doing something wrong just yet. Surfing is harder than it looks and it takes time.

Keep getting out there, keep getting bashed about and looking like a fool. We've all done it.

The bigger boards are good to learn on and get your paddling strength but they are harder to duckdive so you might grow out of it quickly. I learnt the hard way starting off with a regular shorty and getting nailed for weeks. Dunno whats the best approach tho, being older probably the longer board might be a good choice.

By: "sandspit"

I did this approach as well and was getting frustrated that my mate who I started with who got a mini-mal was 'getting it' faster than me, but it's really how persistant you are, now I am a much stronger surfer than he is and get more waves.

Yep key is to keep on trying. Like anything in life, the more you practice at it, the better you get. Even just watching a surf dvd and observing how pros have their stance is in my mind equivallent to a surf lesson.

Keep trying, keep getting smashed, keep trying and dont give up. Patience and perseverence.

Hi Rob,

I suggest you'll grow into the board with experience and determination, but it's not a board I would have picked first up. The 7'6" mini mal would have been better.

The initial thrill of surfing is being able to stand up. Once you can do that you can get into the fancy turns and stuff.

A board better suited to you would be a longer more forgiving board, such as the 8'7" 'Blue'. While the Blues good for small waves, it's drawback is that it turns like a brick. But it's easy to stand up on and get the feel of the wave which is really where you need to be at the moment.

Twelve months [or less] you'll probably have grown out of it, but at least you'll have avoided the frustration of falling off all the time.

They're readily available in most hire shops, so I suggest you contact one or two to see if they have them available and try one out.

Cheers

Les K

Rob, why don't you go on a surfing trip for a while? Surf lots of different waves and wave styles, just surf every hour for a week, you will pick it up quickly if you experiment with different wave types.

I found you learned a lot faster and got better faster the better the wave (within reason - I wouldd't head out at pipe to soon, so to speak). Trying to learn on an almost straight hander beachie is bloody frustrating, but part of the initiation... when you find yourself on a nice little reef, breaking in the same spot, gentle sloping takeoff, nice even paced wall... it will come together a lot faster

Go to Bali. Surf Medewi. You will improve ten-fold in a week. Enjoy. You might even score a root in Kuta to add extra confidence.

There is all some good advice here from everyone here. I stopped surfing at about 7 years old and took it up again at 29. I got myself a 7'6 x 21 1/2 x 2 3/4 big round nose, fat rails etc which was great to get back into it and once I got better enabled me to progess reasonably quickly. The foam volume sounds about the same in the recommended board as a longer 7'6 but I believe you will be less frustrated on a longer board.
You have to perservere and the more time you can spend out there the better. Every time you go out, you will learn something new, or work something else out and one day it will all click. What I took most time to work out was timing and how hard you should paddle for a wave. Timing your paddle with the oncoming wave is crucial and I found personally the harder you paddle early on, the earlier you get onto the wave and can get to your feet. If you don't put in enough effort you get picked up by the wave too late and the steeper it is, the harder it gets. 7'6 are hard to duck dive but I think the 6'8 at almost 3 inches thick will be the same.

Hey Rob, after teaching a few mates over the years to surf I have found the crawl befor you walk theroy works well.
Learn the body surf first to gain ocean knowlage and water smarts.
Then get a lid and start to learn about waves and build up some paddling fitness.
Make sure when you have got your surf fitness down then jump on a DOG of a board which is old, dinged and wont mind a bit of battering and hit waves which are clean and fat...everyday.
Its called the grommet progression and is humbling, hard and humiliating. Shame you are to old to be tied inside a wheely bin and sent over the sand dunes! Grommet!
Enjoy the ride Rob its a lot better than golf.

I would certainly look at a bigger board like 7'6" to even 8'2". Also if you are riding beachies and have moved on from the whitewater try a mid to full tide so you give yourself some time to get up.

Hey Rob
I've only been surfing for about a year now - nice to see some input on these pages from fellow nubies.
My husband and kids bought me a 7'2" Easyrider foamie for my 44th birthday 14 months ago. It got me into taking lessons at Wanda Beach (Cronulla) and I was hooked straight up.
The foamie did't last long - I outgrew it pretty quick. A local shaper made me a beautiful 6'9 1/2" fibreglass board which I have been surfing on since September. It's a great board. I'm still not real good at the duck dive, but it eskimo rolls really easily - not like the big heavy boards.
I would still like to get a 7'3" for when it's REALLY small (can't go back to the foamie though!).
Good luck with your board and your surfing - I hope to see lots of posts from you keeping us all informed of your progress.
Cheers
Kaz

I've been surfin for 3 years now..
All it took was 3 weeks before i was cuttin across the wave... 3 weeks... morning, noon and night...

I guess being on the dole at the time had something to do with it.

I had a 6'8'' StepDeck... a lovely invention for learning on.. It's like a 4 foot board stuck on a 6'8 board... lots of boyancy... bit of a bugger duck divin though.

My best advice dude...
Take a soujourn from whatever your doing in your life, and surf surf surf...

Also, if you can... try and get to where your not just catchin whitewash.
I reckon the hardest thing about surfing is that there's no constant "wave face".
You gotto wait, stuff it, try again, wait, stuff it wait wait wait..
With, say, Snowboarding you have a big hill and gravity (the power source) and it's easier to learn as you've got kilometres of "falling space" to figure it out, and lift back up to try it again.

With surfing you have these 10 second windows, if your lucky, where its either make or break. Get's bloody frustratin sometimes. But just keep at it mate. Keep at it.. tell your family you're going on a spritual journey, and never leave the water.

Anyway i'm rambling... its a bad habit of mine.

Good Luck!

Visit East Corrimal beach or Corrimal beach lots of differents surfing spots along the beach providing many waves and whitewash to practice on. The 7S 7'3" superfish XL may be a suitable board. You can go to SKIPP and borrow them for a day to try out.