The best answer to “I can catch waves on my own. Which board should I buy next?” is the classic beauty-pageant answer: it depends! 😅
But “it depends” needs an explanation. It depends on how you catch waves, what you can already do on them, who chooses the conditions you surf in, how often you practise and your fitness. It also depends on the opportunities you have to try different equipment as you progress.
Before choosing your next surfboard, some questions deserve an answer. Let us take them one at a time.
1. Are you catching the wave, or is the wave catching you?
When you say you can already catch waves on your own, what do you mean? Are you sure you can match the wave’s speed and energy? Or does the wave still give you a shove, and off you go?
This illusion is quite common. Sorry to break your hearts! But there may still be gaps in your understanding of the ocean and its waves. In those cases, it may be time to keep some volume in your board. Perhaps even keep using a “surf school board”, slightly smaller than the one you have been learning on.
What I want to avoid is such a large change in board type or dimensions that the transition becomes your main problem. Your next board should help you keep learning.
2. Who chooses your playing field?
Are you attending a surf school and catching some waves independently, while your coach still chooses the time, the best tide, the beach and where you will catch waves? Or do you already surf alone, or with friends, and manage that information yourself?
This matters a great deal. When someone prepares those conditions, your playing field is, from the outset, selected to suit your level. That support also matters when choosing a board.
Surfing regularly at the same beach also helps, because you gradually understand its waves better. Yes, wave patterns differ from beach to beach. That is one reason surfers have large board collections: they adapt their equipment to the size, power and way a wave develops.
3. Are you replacing a board or adding another one?
What I am asking is whether you need to sell your current board to buy the next one. I know that may be necessary. But, where possible, I recommend keeping both during the transition, until the new one also becomes an extension of your body.
If you are continuing to work with a surf school, being able to try its quiver, the collection of boards available, can also help you make that transition. This is precisely one of a school’s roles: supporting learning, progression and the transition between equipment.
It may seem like an extra expense, but that support can prevent rushed purchases and give you access to different boards without having to buy them all.
4. Does your school have boards for progression and transition?
A school needs more than equipment for the first few lessons. Often, what is missing is precisely equipment for progression and transition.
If all you see in the quiver are large beginner boards, ask how your progression will be supported. The equipment needs to keep pace with what you are learning.
The condition of the boards matters too
A school with well-cared-for boards, without dings, the knocks or damage a board can sustain, says a great deal about its attention to safety, session organisation and respect for the equipment, the client and the sport.
When I look at the boards at so many schools and see cuts, dings and badly treated equipment, I wonder: am I the only one who sees this?
Keeping every board intact is certainly not easy. It requires organisation, attention, techniques and strategies when preparing, running and finishing sessions. Accidents and damage cannot be treated as an inevitable part of a lesson. There is work to do to prevent them.
I want to keep everything safe: the equipment and the people. And keep everyone’s mood intact too!
Durability for the school and performance for the surfer
There is plenty to say about those rigid boards that look like plastic from the «xinês» 😆. In certain models sold to schools, the “performance” most often promoted is durability: withstanding intensive use, transport, being put away and taken out again, and the rough treatment that so often becomes normal.
But a material’s durability and its suitability for the surfer are different questions. A board lasting a long time does not, on its own, tell us whether it is the best one for that person’s learning.
And one distinction matters here: “epoxy” does not, on its own, identify a single construction or a single set of characteristics in the water. I am not putting every epoxy board in the same category. I am questioning equipment chosen for the school’s convenience without the same attention to what the surfer needs.
5. Of the waves you try to catch, how many do you actually catch?
Look at the relationship between the waves you try to catch and those you actually catch. Then ask in what conditions that happens, and with what help.
That information matters, but an isolated percentage does not decide the purchase. It needs to be considered alongside what you do on the wave, your independence and the conditions in which you will use your next board.
6. Can you already ride waves both left and right?
Do the waves you catch have an open face to ride along? Can you follow the wave both left and right, or are you still going straight in?
If you are still going straight in, you first need to learn to ride along the wave in both directions. There are options, including softboards, that allow you to progress at this stage. Shapes and fin configurations are available that differ from those of boards used in the first few lessons.
Being able to ride along a wave does not automatically make reducing volume the next decision, either. We need to look at your skills as a whole and the conditions in which you will practise.
A softboard can be your high-performance board
Yes, a softboard can be a high-performance board, in the sense that, at that moment, it is the equipment that best meets your needs.
When I talk about performance here, I mean what that equipment allows you to achieve at your current stage. It makes little sense to choose a board for the status we attach to it, then spend an entire session unable to work on what we needed to learn.
Keep an open mind: performance does not always have to mean a tiny, short, lightweight board.
7. How many times a week do you surf?
If you can only surf once or twice a week, and sometimes miss a session, that frequency needs to inform the decision. A board that requires abilities you cannot yet apply consistently can make learning harder.
But hours in the ocean do not explain everything. We also need to assess your general fitness and how you maintain your surf-specific fitness when you cannot get to the beach.
8. What do you bring to this learning process?
Do you do another physical activity? Do you train when you cannot get into the ocean? What is your sporting background?
Your sporting background helps me understand the range of movement skills you have developed and your starting point for new learning. It does not, on its own, determine how far you can go. I consider that information alongside what you can do today.
Even with some established skills, you may benefit from more volume to meet the demands of paddling and maintain your ability to catch waves. That is one reason you see experienced surfers choosing boards with more volume: family, social and professional responsibilities also change the time available for surfing and training.
9. What kind of surfing do you want to do, and in what real conditions?
Do you already have preferences? What waves do you want to surf? How often will you actually be able to do it?
Many surfers start as adults and have full lives outside surfing. That reality deserves consideration when choosing a board. There is little point buying equipment for a practice routine you will not be able to maintain.
Our advice may be to keep a board similar to the one you use at school, suited to what you need to learn now. After all, the aim is to surf and keep progressing. Once again, I encourage an open mind. As I once learnt: “The map is not the territory!”
How I assess board dimensions within METSIT®
A chart matching weight, height and a label such as “beginner”, “intermediate” or “advanced” leaves a great deal of information out.
In my approach, equipment choice forms part of assessing the surfer. I consider:
- Weight, height and foot size.
- Sporting background and the range of movement skills developed.
- Current general fitness and, at more advanced levels, surf-specific fitness.
- Motor control and endurance.
- Skill level and knowledge of the ocean.
- Practice frequency and the conditions in which the board will be used.
These criteria guide the choice of dimensions and transitions during learning. The choice is reviewed as your abilities and practice conditions change. You can learn more about the METSIT® method.
So, which board should you actually buy?
Buying your first board, or your next one, can become a disappointing investment when the choice is driven by impulse, appearance or a vague idea of progression.
If you buy a board suited to your current stage, a time may come when you need to change it. If you buy one for skills you do not yet have, you can make learning harder. That is why I advocate gradual transitions and the opportunity to try equipment with guidance.
Equipment similar to that used by schools is also available today. If you already know a particular board works for you, that experience deserves to inform your decision about what you will use when surfing independently.
Every case is different. We work with equipment and models we know. The question is which ones make sense for you.
Would you like help choosing your next board?
In consultations with me, I consider your sporting background and the range of movement skills you have developed, your current surfing and fitness, and how often and in what conditions you will surf.
Before buying on impulse, contact me with the word “PRANCHA” to ask about the consultation and its terms.
Inês Tralha
Good Surf Good Love · Baleal, Peniche