The Right Surf Boards for Learning
The right surf boards to learn surfing, have a lot of volume. Volume makes paddling easier, catching waves easier and riding the surf board easier. This is why instructors use soft top boards. The other advantage is they don’t hurt beginners when they hit them.
Starting on the Soft Tops
In Oceanside Surf Lessons, we start teens and adults on 9′ soft top boards and younger kids on 8′ soft top boards. Consideration is given to how much board the student can paddle and the body composition of the student. The larger the person, the bigger board they will need.
Many kids fantasize about riding short boards like they see in the movies or out in the surf at the beach as advanced surfers rip the waves. What they don’t see is that surfers with 8′ soft tops can ride 7′ waves and do most of the tricks as the other surfers.
Why an 8′ or 9′ Soft Top
The advantage of the 8′ or 9′ soft top is it makes surfing easier until surfers are ready to step to shorter boards. Even then, the step down should be 6″ at a time while maintaining width and thickness of bigger boards. Stepping down too fast only increases frustration and shortens surfing sessions. Shorter boards with less volume are much harder to paddle.
Another advantage of soft top boards is they can catch foam waves for beginners and catch real waves anytime the surfer is ready. Its a progression that some can make in one lesson, but most need a few lessons to achieve. A foam wave rolls for a while and it is easy to get in front. A real wave forms in a few seconds and timing is much more difficult.
Moving to Real Waves
On soft top boards, surfers first learn to catch foam waves and then paddle out and turn around to catch bigger foam waves. In this process, they can start looking for real waves that have reformed and learn the necessary timing. By this time, beginners have to have mastered all the fundamentals learned in the first lesson.
Learn More
For Oceanside Surf Lessons, see the Home Page
See the Post What You Learn in a 2 Hour Lesson
See the Post How to Progress in Surfing
See My Dry Land and In Water Demo video
See How to Catch a Green/Real Wave video