Beginners guide to purchasing a new surfboard

Beginners guide to choosing a surfboard

Your first surfboard is an important decision. If you choose poorly without having the right advice, you may end up finding it difficult to progress for a long time or worse still giving up because you think it's just too hard! Hopefully I can give you some pointers and direction from my twenty years plus of making custom boards for people just like you.
 Firstly before you buy, you should beg, borrow & rent as many boards as you can, too feel for yourself what you do best on. Sure the small ones are easy to duck dive, fit in your transport & carry to the beach, but are you doing it to go surfing or duck diving? What you need is the best balance between be able to carry it around, catch all the waves you want & be stable enough to have you cruising across the green face of the wave in no time.
 Reputable surfboard shops carry secondhand boards, demos & rentals, along with good staff who should be happy to give as much advice as you need. Notice I said "surfboard shops" as there is a lot of "surf shops" that are just clothing stores with a few boards in them just to look credible. A surfboard shop should have secondhand boards they gave traded in from happy customers who have already progressed on to the next level in performance & fun. Don't be afraid to ask for a guaranteed trade in when your ready for your next surfboard. Surf schools are also a big help in choosing the right board and recommendation of a place to purchase it from.
 So what are the things your looking for in your first board? 
Volume: remember this "foam is your friend" the more floatation, width & thickness you have the more waves you will catch & the quicker you will progress. 
Length: you need a minimum of around 30cm taller than your self, the longer board you have the sooner you catch the wave.  
Width: stability is important in this stage of your new surfing career, the wider your board the less likely you are to be wobbling off the side every time you put your weight on the rails of your board. The ideal width is dependent on your overall weight and height but I would expect to see a minimum of 19" wide but preferably up to 21" or even 22". 
Thickness: paddling your board is something you will do the longest every time you go surfing, so make it easy on yourself and keep plenty of thickness in your board under your chest and thru the middle of the board. The rails should be full and soft in the centre also with thinner rails in the nose and tail allowing you to penetrate the water when duck diving or turning. Once again the thickness is a variable dependent on your body size, so minimum of around 2 1/2" to 3" is a good ballpark to start with.
Tail shape: to be completely honest right now the tail shape will make very little difference. Plenty of width around your back foot is more important. Pointy bits hurt and damage easy. 
Fins: in basic terms the bigger a fin is in the centre of the board the more stable it will be as it drives you forward. Side fins help you turn up and down on the face of the wave. The 2+1 fin setup like longboards have Is the most user friendly for beginners, however the everyday thruster Is a common compromise that will work fine and keep you progressing. 
Nose width: once again width equals stability. The common beginner boards will have a round or wide pointed nose keeping floatation and area up there to help.
What Board type? Good question. There is so many names for these types of boards. Those common shape characteristics are found in hybrids, semi fish boards, minimals & retro boards. So follow your head with the knowledge I've just given you & forget the hype of the cool name/logo & think about all the cool rides your going to have on the correct shaped board for you.       

Californian pig style longboard

I read a nice article on Pig style longboards from the Magazine SLIDE last month. i really liked the classic style & the fun factors of the 50's & 60's style longboards so i made one!
This current small little swell was nice for Isaac to try it out for me... i cant wait to get back in the water & give it a run myself!

WAVE DOMINATOR HITS THE SHELVES THIS WEEK!!!

Roger Salmoggi of Tugan on the Gold coast was stoked to be the first person to pick up a new WAVE DOMINATER surfboard from our Tugun store. This board Features an extra wide diamond tail and 5 fin set up. This board is works excellent as a thruster in good conditions and ideal for sloppy days as a quad set up. Dave has been testing this model with team riders such as Dale Richards. We now have a full range in stock ready to be ridden and pleasured.

Dale Has a New Quiver for the Summer season.

Here is Dale Richards new batch of performance shortboards. Along with his
high performance Sprint Model boards for competition, Dale has been
trialling our latest release WD (Wave Dominator) ModeL & a super funky fun
board we call the Squid.
A famous guy said in 1895
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. Too change
something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."

Chrismas eggs?

Heres a little taste of a couple new eggs lineing to make smiles on some lucky customers face.. the "style Commander" taking over a break near you!

Dale & the Squid tail

Heres a new batch of boards for Dale, he is off to Taiwan for a surftrip with Quiksilver on Sunday...

New boards for a couple of Bali's best surfers.

The boards are our Sprint model Indonesian special. the prints are just a sample of the full graphic prints we can do...

Cutback carving coldwater

James Holmer Cross running in his new Sprint model in some painted perfection courtesy of www.swellnet.com.au

Free your Inner Fish....

I Did Myself a new board for the Currumbin Fish Fry. its a Mini Simmons Style Twin Fin. 5'6"x 22"x 2 3/4"=35.6L
hope you like it... im looking forward to these stormy conditions to abate to get out there on it!

8 new boards for James Hollmer Cross

James picked up his new Quiver today... let hope we see lots of nice video footage in some of the new RipCurl seach movies.

fresh graphic of the day..

Heres another fine looking selection of boards rolling out of the Diverse factory...

 Digital imaging is great!

Graphic board pic of the day!

Here is a example of the fine detail you can get on a spray for your board, Click on the board to see the detail...Dave has been playing around with different patterns on these two simple sprays. 

Shape up for summer!

Here is 2 good shapes for the beach. a Mullet & a Maiden... Combined & composed by one of our customers Simon Muirhead.

Green & Team testing Time

Dale Richards is Testing one of our new board Designs for 2009. looking Green for the Future..
and heres some old footage from a contast too...

Faux Wood

Heres a nice wood look board. The art is airbrushed on the traditional way. the board is a Mullet model fish board with a thruster setup

Lots of new demos in the shop

Theres a big range of demo boards to try out now.... the economy does not allow you to throw money at new flash unknown shapes.. so try one first to make sure you know what your in for! check the Demo Page here..

happy customers

Heres a happy Rossco with a new yellow Custom Sprint... the board next to it is a sample digital print of one of our upcoming artists BEN EVERETT. the board is our 2009 model release the "SS" known as the Super Sprint, its great for any surf under 5 foot! we have a few stocked in the shop at the moment. Cmon in and check them out...

Happy Quad customers...

Heres A Happy Ian picking up his new Custom Quad. the Cloth insert is the last piece i had of that print. i like to get small pieces of some retro fabrics now and then to keep the boards looking special and individual looking...

Hawaii here they come

The Hawaiian surf season is about to start. heres our womens WCT contender Amee Donahue's latest batch of boards for the island they call the "rock". Amee has won both the Triple crown title and Rookie of the year in previous seasons in Hawaii, She is currently sitting on number 4 and we hope for good things knowing her record in previous years.

happy customers

Dave and Jamie,
I bought a new board off you when we were on holidays a few weeks back. just thought i'd send you this picture of it's second surf. thanks heaps
Ben G