Hi and welcome..

IMO you should add the new 8'5'' Mana to your list.

DavidJohn said..
Hi and welcome..

IMO you should add the new 8'5'' Mana to your list.

Thanks for the welcome!
Yeah? I might look into it a bit more, thanks.

I just want to be careful as i know the new X32's are fairly wide (obviously) and i read another smaller person on here had a bit of trouble with the width in the surf. So i am unsure, being smaller, that i need a wide board. I think id be fairly stable on the narrower performance boards plus they would allow me to surf more aggressively.

why would you be looking at the X32? they are for heavier riders, I have both pro waves in the JP and Fanatic and they are awesome boards.
Can't go wrong with either :) DJ's suggestion of the new Mana is a good idea too.

The trouble with the extra width is not so much the extra width but the fact that your getting extra volume. For some reason any extra width boards are designed for heavier guys so you end up with a thick wide board that's too corky for a lightweight and bounces around too much. No big brand that I know of designs a slightly wider, more stable but surf oriented board for lighter guys. Us skinny guys are getting the short end of the paddle here! How great would it be if some one put a 32" wide board that was under 4" thick, nice bit of tail rocker for turning, plenty of glide through the middle and not too much nose rocker so you don't feel like your shovelling half the beach in front of you when you get up on the nose. Oh and some nice fine rails that you could actually bury when you wanted too would be nice.
In the mean time I wouldn't go for the fanatic prowave at your skill level. Great board but not for a beginner moving toward intermediate, and really needs pretty clean waves to really come into it's own. I had one for a year. It was great when the surf was great, average when the surf was average and poor when the surf was poor. They really give your legs a work over too, not really a relaxing board to surf. The Jimmy Lewis Striker 8'11 would suit you down to the ground I reckon.

colas said..

Extra width is also slower to paddle, and has more row for short people (they have the paddle blade well outside the center).

I would differ with MickMc, plenty of brands make boards for lightweights. Just not the brands geared for the overweight US market...

LRO, my daughters are your size, and were fine on 28.5" wide boards, you can go up to 30" I guess, not too short for an easy take off, but not too long as not to be cumbersome: something in the 8'6" - 9'6" range. around 110 - 120l would be fine

Sorry Colas, maybe I didn't express myself clearly enough. I agree there are plenty of boards out there for lightweights. I'm saying no one makes a wider board for lightweights. The wider boards add stability on the less than perfect surf days .... as in most of the time. I prefer a narrower board on a good surf day and certainly wouldn't go wider than 30", but if it's really lumpy with a cross swell then a little extra width is what you need ..... just not the volume.

I agree with Piros, the boards you listed all look good for you. The only change I would make is to drop down to the 7'10" Naish X32, rather than the 8'3". Those Naish's are all super stable for their length, because of the width, so at your weight you don't need to go above 8' on that model.

My choice for an all round board that will surf small up to double overhead is the JP 8'6" surf pro...in carbon.

Thanks so much for all the input guys i really appreciate it.
Now i still have to make a decision! haha
I want something to perform (remembering im no superstar) but i still want something comfortable on those choppy days. I want to enjoy being out even when the waves are honking!
I suppose from all of this i will start looking for something roughly 28-30" wide, around 8'6"ish and about 110L. That fits the JP surf pro description pretty well.

Time to start looking a bit harder, maybe tee up some test paddles!

If you have anything else to add, im more than willing to keep taking more advice!
Thanks agian.

IMO don't get too hung up on widths.. It needs to float you and you need stability (in all conditions).. Demo, demo, demo.

If you have to choose between 'narrow and thick rails' or 'wider and thin rails'.. give me the wider board with thinner rails any day..

DavidJohn said..

IMO don't get too hung up on widths.. It needs to float you and you need stability (in all conditions).. Demo, demo, demo.

If you have to choose between 'narrow and thick rails' or 'wider and thin rails'.. give me the wider board with thinner rails any day..

Problem is with production boards in the more surfy end of the spectrum, there isnt a great deal of difference in rail thickness. I have a 3 or so year old Naish 8.4 at 27.5 wide, its rails are pretty much the same as the current players at 29-32 wide

Yeah well I suppose that's another thing, I want performance but I also want to just enjoy being out there if it choppy. I think I might have said that already. And being my level how much performance am I really going to get out of a 28" compared to a 30".