A helpful guide to your Surfboard Progress

This is a guide to help you as you progress your surfing from Beginner to Advanced rider. I hope it helps you buy the best surfboard for you ability so you don’t stop learning and having fun. Surfing is a very hard sport to learn and we all have individual needs from our Boards we ride. This is just a general overview of how i feel you should progress to get the best out of the Sport.

The Beginner (Kook)

We all started here, a total newbie or Kook as we say in the Surf Community. We all spend the first six months nosediving into the surf and getting nowhere, then eventually start catching and riding waves. The first board most people ride is a foamy, usually during a few lessons at a local surf school. This quickly becomes an obsession and before you know it you have yourself a learner surfboard.

A MInimal  is the standard universal board to get you started. It’s smooth takeoff and stable ride makes it easy for you to learn to catch waves and ride down the line. Most Surfers don’t stay on this board long enough and move to quickly towards something shorter. This is a big mistake a Minimal has everything you need to take you to being and Intermediate surfer.

The Intermediate Surfer

This is the point when most surfers really mess up there progress. You don’t want to drop volume to fast and impede your ability to catch loads of waves, this is the key to success. It’s also the time when you realize what type of surfer you want to be. This could mean you are going to become a Longboarder or A shortboarder depending on your goals.

I feel at this point as a Surfboard shaper, i need to point out that your second board choice is really important. It’s a defining time in your progress, you get this board wrong and  you could go backwards! So the next board has to be a bit more advanced but still hold enough volume that you still catch waves easily.

Weather your a Surfer who is heading towards a Shortboard or a Longboard i feel the next step for you is to ride a single fin board. The reason for this is a single fin surfboard helps you fine tune your turns. The type of maneuvers you do while riding a single fin are more times and more powerful. In other words unless you ride a single fin at some point you won’t learn to use the face of the wave to create powerful turns and maneuvers.

Once you master the art of turning surfboard you can then at this point move onto the wide variety of boards available like twin fins and Thruster fins. However if you have taken the right steps you will get a lot more from these shapes in the surf.

Advanced Surfer Boards

By this point you are at least five years into your surfing journey. You have tried all sorts of boards know exactly what you like to ride. As the Waves get bigger and more hollow the board you ride is determined more buy the conditions than your ability. An Advanced surfer will heave a few Surfboards to choose from in His or Her quiver. An everyday shortboard, a Performance board for reefs and maybe a Step Up for when the waves are big and need something serious.

If you went down the Longboard route at this point you either use a high performance Longboard or your walking the Board to the nose on a Noserider Log. Hanging ten with style at your local break.

I hope this helps you when buying your self the next board you need. Just remember most surfers make a few errors, going down in volume to early and never riding a single fin surfboard. Have fun!