Look for a board around 10-12 feet long and minimum 29 inches wide.

As a general rule a longer board will paddle better and be more stable and shorter board will perform better in the surf.

fishmego said...

Im looking at a 11'4 x 30" Naish Nalu so it sound like Im on the right track.
Thank you
Mark

Sounds perfect to me.. The 11'4" is a great board but I think the 10' Mana might be even better.. and more stable.

Where are you.. Can you demo boards?

DJ

Fishmego. Welcome to the forum.

All good advice above. I would be a min of 30' wide. There are lots of good boards 10 ft X 32 wide which would suit. If your surfing, anything over 11 ft I think can be a handful in the waves.

You will have a blast.

Lobes said...

anything over 11 ft I think can be a handful in the waves.

Depends what hes trying to do. Sure thats correct if hes trying to do radical manouevres a shorter board will definitely perform better and be more responsive. But its also going to have relatively less glide and be not quite as easy to catch the wave in the first place

Yeah Lobes not disagreeing. But from my experience, I found 11ft+ can be a handful controlling it in the white water or in a wipeout. Fishmego sounds like a pretty strong fella so maybe no problem for him.

Your new to the sport eh,
Keep in mind in the fibreglass industry sells a lot of misinformation.
When you buy a board you need to ask yourself these questions.
Are you a surfer or have any surf experience?
Are you a tall bloke or stocky fella, Fit or out of nick?
How much time are you going to spend on the board.
What is the percentage (paddle / surf) you intend to use your SUP for?
How much are you prepared to spend?
How strong do you want you boards to be.. 1,2,3 layers of cloth(heavy last longer vs light dents and breaks easier)
My advise- don't get talked into overpriced labels at this stage- shops love guys like you..start off cheap, save, get started and learn, after you bash the board up then trade up using your new knowledge of the sport and other equipment in the market...good luck mate

Thanks noha thats great advice. Its all a bit confusing at the moment.

fishmego said...

Thanks guys for your feedback its helped heaps. I'II try a couple out and see how things go. I ride a mal at the moment but my knees are playing up so I like the idea of paddling in looks good and a lot of fun.

Ok - this may change things a bit. I also have knee problems and you really need to keep a coupla things in mind when you are surfing these things - firstly you MUST move on the board when you set up turns and never ever ever try to muscle it around or you will ##ck your knees very quickly and very badly. Secondly you may need to actually look at a more surf oriented board that has a bit of rocker/maybe more vee in the tail to enable easier rail to rail transition and other characteristics that are going to actually be able to turn with a lot less effort. Some boards that I have seen in recent months that would be worth checking out and may suit your weight would be starboard 10.5 and 11.2/Fanatic 10.6/Suplove 10.6/Pearson Laird 11/Simon Anderson 10.0 just to name a few.

fishmego said...

I Iive in carrum downs victoria which is on the pennisula.
Looks like Trigger Bros has a couple of demo boards which I'II go a give a try.
Again thank you all for your help.

It's worth the drive up to Melbourne and pop into SHQ or RPS.. They have a much bigger range of demo boards that you can try.

PM me with your phone number and I'll help you out if you like.

DJ