“I don’t want to be a longboarder, can I go straight to a short board?”

This is for the advanced beginner surfer that wants go short, fast. Everyone will tell you “just get a longboard”. But you know in your little shredding heart, riding a smaller board now is possible.

This was me.

So I’m here to tell you it is possible to drop volume fast, but more importantly why you shouldn’t…yet. If you’re like me, you mastered quite a few of the foundational skills, but you don’t know the fastest way to learn the ones you were lacking. And not getting them dialed in on a bigger board will likely cause you to do them incorrectly on a smaller board - and you’ll have to go back and undo a lot of muscle memory to learn them correctly.

What skills do I mean?

I saw so many people say something along the lines of ‘develop some style first’. But for those that don’t dream of noseriding and cross stepping, this sounds like a waste of time. Here is what I learned later, noseriding and cross-stepping are not the skills they mean. They mean, they mean stance, and carving turns.

I didn’t say pop-up and trimming, because I strongly suspect, you have your pop-up down enough that it’s no longer the issue. And if you’re itching for a shortboard, I would bet you’ve trimmed down the line, and gotten your rail engaged enough times to wondering “what’s next, how how do I shred?”…and the natural next thought is..it’s the size of your board that is limiting your ability to surf. But it’s probably not…yet.

For me, my stance was accidental. I mean, it was consistently wide, but it’s just how my surfing evolved, not something I practiced. And having a wide stance meant sometimes on a shortboard, I could accellerate and sometimes I could do a nice bottom turn, but I didn’t have precise control over it. And once I learned not being intentional about stance, also leads to not being able to mastered carving, it became obvious that the best way to drill that is on a board that gets you a high wave count.

But what size board? Once I realized that fundementally carving a longboard is the same as a shortboard, except you have to exaggerate it. Not just shift your weight, actually MOVE your foot back, or even step back, and then as you exit the turn, move forward again to reaccelerate, it was clear that the best way to be conciously in control of it (until it becomes automatic), is to be forced to exaggerate it. If you have ot move your foot back, you’re not going to accidentally carve a longboard. And because you can’t accidentally do it, once you’re consistenlty doing it, you’ll know you’ve mastered that skill (enough).

So many videos talk about compress and extend that I didn’t realize how foundational weight shifting was to carving. Even though the first step is lean back.

How do you know if your stance is correct? It can be tough…I went to quite a few surf camps, and because my stance wasn’t horrible and because I could sometimes carve, I was told my stance was good. But I finally found a coach that told me the truth..my stance was too wide and that’s why I couldn’t control the speed of my board, or do tight turns. Once it was pointed out, it was so obvious…and I would have NEVER figured that out on my own without coaching.

Two bad reasons for not wanting a longboard

You’re nosediving

It’s fine if you don’t want to end up as a long boarder, but it should be a red flag if you don’t want a longboard because you think it’s the board length causing you to nosedive.

You don’t want to look like a beginner anymore

I won’t belabor this - just look at experienced surfers on longboards and foamies. They look good. If you look like a beginner on a foamie, you’re going to look worse on a shortboard, because it’s less forgiving. Doesn’t mean don’t get one, just saying it’s not the board…

But getting to the point…if you don’t want to get a longboard, because it’s ‘too much board to swing around’, the problem is actually still lack of foundational skills, and in particular carving turns. I had gotten to the point, where I could do bottom turns, re-entries, sometimes a floater, but I didn’t have full control over it. It happened, but it wasn’t precise. I had gone on a few surf trips with coaching, and had been told my stance is fine. It wasn’t until I went to Surf Simply, that they quickly identified that my stance was too wide. I had resisted doing the ‘cute longboard’ stance, because I’m not a longboarder…

Unless you NEVER see longboards or large midlengths at this break (think fast and steep), you need to master a few more

Are you actually ready to drop volume?

There’s a point in your skills progression, that before which, it’s just going to waste time to drop size. So before you drop volume/length aggressively, make sure you’re learned to read and catch green waves, are comfortable taking off near the peak of a 2-3’ wave, and can angle down the line. A larger board is going to get you to these milestones much faster and at this level, there’s nothing a small board is going to actually help you with.

As for going down the line, if you’re still going straight, you should break that habit on an easy board first otherwise you’ll just end up in the flats with rides that don’t allow you to learn anything or worse, constantly caught inside.

If you want more detail about what level surfer you should be, if you look at what surf simply has to say, you’re right at the end of level 2 surfing and you’re comfortable in waist and maybe chest high surf. I agree with their time estimation that you can achive this in a few weeks to a few months depending on how often you paddle out.

In addition to technical skills, you also know how to navigate the lineup. Surf ettiquite isn’t hard, but it takes a little bit of time to learn, and it’s just easier to learn while sitting on a longboard because you can get out of the way faster.

So now that you know when you’re ready, we have to discuss…

Do I really have to get a longboard?

You really should. Not every wave, and not every day is a small board day. Board to wave selection is a skill you’re going to be working on, so for now, just trust that everyone says get a longboard for a reason. So when I say you can drop volume fast, basically what we’re doing now is adding in shortboard days, when the conditions are right. As an advanced beginner, heavy waves, crowds, long paddle and current all mean bring more volume but be patient with yourself as you figure this all out. You’re going to feel like a kook on the wrong board some days.

As for what board, you don’t need to go larger than ~9’. There are a few types of longboard, and this article from Hawaiian South Shore sums up the difference. I got the 9’1” Harley Ingelby HIHP.

If you want to go shorter, you can also get something like an 8’ Ova. The volume is almost the same as my longboard, and the reviews say it turns like a dream. I have a similar shape (Josh Hall Panacea), and I love it.

I wouldn’t over think this, just don’t go too long (since you don’t wanna to be a long boarder). You can always sell this board later. But most importantly…

Resist the urge to get a 7’ mini-mal/funboard as your easy board.

This board shape won’t scratch your ‘I want to shortboard’ itch and it’s actually going to be challenging to ride on small or weak waves. At this stage, this shape is going to be the worst of all worlds.

So having discussed a few things that I would have beneffited from knowing sooner, here are the boards I used to drop length quickly.

Step 1: Master the shortboard pop-up on super easy, but small, board.

If you only ride a longboard, it’s hard to know for sure, if you can do a shortboard pop-up. The only way to know, is to take away a few feet of length.

For this, I wanted to drop length, but not too much volume. So I got a 6’6” Odysea. At 55L it was only 6L lighter than my longboard so it was still very easy to paddle. The rails on this board are fat so don’t think you have to master short board turns on this board, but in addition to dailing in your pop-up, you can work on trimming turns and kicking off the wave.

You’re going to have start moving more inside to catch waves, but not critically so.

This board is a confidence booster for sure.

Step 2: Remove volume, learn to paddle

This step, is a much bigger skills jump than the last, but as long as you’re expecting it, and are willing to get out of your comfort zone, it’s fine. For your first session, you may even feel like you’re relearning how to surf here. You’ll have to move further inside and paddle harder.

It’s nearly impossible to know without trying a few boards what size to get, but for me 42L was the sweet spot (however I only learned this after going too small). With this much volume removed, you’ll be forced to learn proper paddle technique, but still have enough volume to catch some waves.

As for board shape, I like a performance midlength, on the smaller side of the range.

The board that really worked for me as my first ‘short’ board was the 6’10” Pyzel Mid Length Crisis. The Hayden Shapes Glider is another good choice. You want a board that has a flatter rocker, and work wells in small surf. As an advanced beginner who wasn’t totally comfortable in head high waves, I loved this board on 2-4’ days, and my longboard on heavier days.

As I said, this will be a skills jump, so I highly recommend getting one (or more) private lessons to be coached on your paddle, wave positioning and board positioning. There are plenty of videos out there on this, but sometimes it helps to have someone see what you’re doing and correct you in the moment. I took this board to a SWA camp, and the instructors got my weak paddle sorted out.

How often you take this board out vs your easy board really depends on the conditions and what you’re looking to get out of each session.

Step 3: Remove more volume

At this stage, your confidence is going to be high, and you’re going to be tempted to get a small, high performance shortboard. I’m not going to tell you not to…but I’ll just say, if you’re still 1-2 years into surfing, you really don’t want to remove so much foam from the front of your board yet.

I dropped ~4 liters here because my breaks usually come with a long paddle, but you could definitely drop more if you’re surfing shore break. My 38L boards range from 5’9 to 6’3” and I have a hydra, a puddle jumper pro and a hypto krypto.

In this stage, there’s a point, where you’re struggling so much, it’s not even worth it. A few people told me this guideline - if you can’t get out back, for whatever reason, you need more volume. If you can get out back, but just can’t catch a wave, it’s up to you to decide if you want to size up, or work on your technique.

So, that’s that. I’ve tried about 20 boards in all kinds of conditions, and I learned there were actually only a few key sizes I needed. So, as long as you have both an achievable board and an aspirational board in your quiver, you don’t need to wait 2 years to get off of the longboard. Just pick some sessions to grab your small(er) board and play!