1. The Wrong Surfboard – I get a lot of students who call and tell me they ‘already have a surfboard’. Most of the time they’ll show up to their first surf lesson with a board that’s too small. A small board makes the most difficult part of surfing – the takeoff – even more so.
A good beginner surfboard does several things:
• It floats high and catches waves easily
• It’s wide, stable, and easy to get up on
• It offers a longer ride on smaller waves
Most of our adult beginner boards are ten-foot soft boards. Soft boards aren’t the status symbol that fiberglass is, but they’ll save you from injuries. And until you get up to turning and trimming across a wave, the performance difference is negligible. (The Banzai instructors sometimes have contests with them : ).
There’s also the issue of moving it around and fitting it in (or on) your car. You may do better to get your own wetsuit first, and rent or borrow a board that you’d soon outgrow anyway.
For beginning surfers, remember this: BIG board, SMALL wave. Not the other way around. – Jaz Kaner
