I Love All Boards, Great & Small

My personal experience with how I came to love all boards, great and small….

I first started surfing when I was 10 years old. I grew up close to the beach and spent my entire childhood, before surfing entered my life, going to the beach and spending days in the water swimming and ended up getting very attached to boogie boarding. As I progressed, I found myself standing on the boogie and knew it was time to make the next step and start surfing. Whoa, what a dramatic shift and a humbling experience.

My first surfboard was a hand me down from my Dad. It was a 6 ft. 70’s single fin. I was quite little and skinny, so this board was like a tanker and pretty intimidating to paddle out on. I had to carry it over my head, as my little arms would not reach around the rails to properly carry the board to and from the water. It was really heavy, too! I already had the fundamentals down of paddling, catching waves, and standing up, sort of! That said, this beast of a board was no boogie board and I got my butt kicked on every occasion for quite some time. I was very persistent and the beach we went to was the hip surf spot in my town, so I had no choice but to improve or be laughed away by the accomplished surfers all around me.

About a year into this experience, I finally got a proper shortboard and the everything changed again. As the shift before, I had to learn how to adapt to a new style of board. I was not a natural talent and had to put the work in, but I loved it, so it was just putting time in and wanting to improve. I surfed strictly on shortboards until I was 14 years old and then I acquired a 7’2” fun shape. I was still very small, so this was like a longboard to me. This board is where my surfing really clicked and I could now hang with the crew at my Dad’s surf spot. I adjusted boards with the waves and went back and forth between shortboard and longboard. I really enjoyed the different feelings these boards provided and challenging myself to go from one to another and surf well on both.

Fast forward to many years later and much older, I still embrace the feeling of riding different boards. I have a pretty deep quiver from 5’6” to 10’6” and every size, shape, and style in between. I make a habit of riding a different board nearly every session and I personally feel it helps to improve my surfing. I am having to constantly adjust the style of surfing I do, along with my approach and foot placement. It helps challenge me to go from a performance shortboard in head high surf to a longboard a couple hours later adjusting everything on the fly.

I have also found this helpful in travel. I have found the need to rent or borrow boards on various trips for various reasons and I have the confidence that I can ride just about anything on my paddle out. If you only ride a performance board and then find yourself on a borrowed fish in an uncharted surf break, things might not go so well.

So, moral of the long-winded story, having the most possible amount of fun while surfing is the ultimate goal. Riding various boards, weird shapes, and equipment designed for specific types of waves will truly help accomplish this. It is unknown if staying true to one style of board or riding everything man has ever developed will make you a better surfer. All I know is that is has allowed me to surf more and continually have fun. I think these are the key elements to an improved surfing experience and lifestyle.