Things to know before buying your first board
There are a lot of things to consider when buying your first surfboard. We put together the 3 most important points to check before buying and our advice on them.
#1: New or 2ndHand
To make it quick, if you are a total beginning surfer (less than 1 or 2 years experience) it is probably best to get a second-hand surfboard. As your surfing gets better you might also quickly want to change to a different board. This can happen already after 1 or 2 years. So it would be quite a waste buying a new board for such a short period of time. You could sell it afterward but so a 2nd hand one. There are a few things to watch out for by buying second hand so it might be handy to bring someone who knows a bit about surfboards. Also if you spend let’s say 200euro on a used surfboard, you might actually end up with a better board as if you would spend 200 on a new board. Another point is that you might not actually surf as much as you hoped for in the beginning. Not just because of lack of motivation, but simply because of life changes (moving, babies, new job, etc.).
#2: Softtop or Hardtop
If you are a beginner, go for a softtop surfboard! You want to make it as easy as possible for yourself in the beginning as this is the fastest way to get better! You might have heard that you can’t make turns or that it is really hard to make turns on a softboard but that’s simple, not true. Especially as softtops got better and better with the years and nowadays a good softtop is definitely better than an average hardtop. Also, you don’t have to be too careful with them. they are a lot less fragile, less heavy, and they hurt a lot less when bumping against them!!!
#3: What size?
The question that gets always asked….does the size matter? Well, it sort of does yes. Most important though is the volume of the surfboards. A simple rule of thumb for a beginning surfer is: The amount of liter in volume should be at least the amount of KG you weigh. So for example if you weigh let’s say 85kg you want a surfboard with at least 85L volume. If you weigh 65kg you want at least 65L volume. If you go by this rule you should be on the safe side. Good to know but not as important in the beginning: A shorter but wider board has probably more balance but is less agile and less quick, while a longer and narrower board might have less balance but is faster and more agile. Please note this changes if we start talking about more intermediate surfboards but that is a whole different story you don’t have to worry about yet.
As for board shapes: Go for a MiniMalibu shape
Fin setup: You are probably safest to go for a thruster setup (3fins)! unless you REALLY know already you only want to surf for example single.
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