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Looking for some advice. This is our first year surfing and we only bought one board trying to get a decent intermediate board to learn and have on the boat. I'm 220lbs and can get up real easy and surf all day on it. It's a five foot O'Brien board. My wife at 120lbs cannot get up at all, she can get up in a crouched position, but then the board gets squirrelly on her. I'm thinking we need a smaller board more specific to someone her size.
Thoughts? Recommendations?
Thanks!
You definitely need a board for her size, it will make your life much better too, lol.
OK, I'm not sure why this is, but a number of the ladies that I know prefer a skim style board over a surf board. It is always the smaller ladies like your wife. I'm not sure why that is, but they all say the surf style boards are squirrelly and they like the skim better. Totally opposite of what most men who are larger say. I can't explain it, but it has been the case with a number of different women and not just on my boat. Several friends who surf and have different makes of boats have said the same thing.
We have several skim style boards including a Victoria Skim Factor that is my wife's favorite. She's 120ish and rides a 4'2" board. We have another skim board that she basically learned to ride on that is 4'6". It's a Liquid Force something custom skim that is a few years old. It is a slower board than the Victoria Skim.
Anybody in your area that might let you demo something or try one of their boards? That would be the best thing to do. If you could let your wife try a surf and a skim board, probably something around 4'6", that would be your best bet.
Happy wife, happy life.
I agree with what RCA is telling.
The issue your wife is having is partly her problem, partly the boards problem.
What you are learning you actually want a BIG slow board that is very heavy when you pick it up. This is why the CWB, Liquid Force, and a few other boards are so popular.
They are very UNresponsive to your movements. This allows new riders to be jittery, and make movement mistakes and the board won't respond to them so fast.
Getting a Smaller board isn't always the better answer, your wife should be able to ride your board just as you do.
When she gets up, if the board is unstable its normally due to your feet not being wide enough apart, having your knees bent too much, or standing unlevel on the board.
She needs to stand pretty centered on the board, this way the board isn't trying to carve, nor is she riding the brakes or the gas.
Another thing that helps me teach new people is pull them up slower then a normal rider, also don't go right to 10mph, she is light enough the board will come up and let her ride at 7mph then when she stabilizes speed up to 10.
A Skim board is technically harder to ride because it only has 1 small tracking fin, but some people <smaller lighter> will like it better because its less buoyant, and has more drag in the water making it feel slower then a traditional surf board that is more buoyant.
I think Mike has the answer to the squirelly problem. Probably your board is too buoyant for her and that's why it feels so loose to her. Bigger guys like us need a more buoyant and fast board because of all the added drag. Put a light person on a big, fast, buoyant board and it just wants to get away from them.
Take a look at the smaller Hyperlite Broadcast in this sale:
https://forum.moomba.com/showthread....-clearing-sale
Thanks for the insight. we are going out again tonight, might see if the Marina has a board available to demo. After that will start shopping around and see what I can find. A lot to consider....
I bought my wife the CWB Ride 5'3 ... She'll be the first one to tell you that she's not athletic or coordinated and she got up after 4 attempts and now is almost wireless. As I said, she still holds onto the rope; but, is easily able to stay in the sweet spot for a long time. She's 5'3 and 150 and absolutely loves this board.
Hope this helps ...
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaneboats
Plus one on the smaller broadcast. Are you on the 5 ft obrien alias, they make a smaller version but the HL broadcast has three removable fins, not just one.
My wife (130 lbs) loves the Inland Surfer Green Loogie.
The board is to fast and squirrely for me.
We do have a CWB ride and sadly to say, that board never gets off the rack
other half is 5'4 and 150(I think)..
she rides my daniello pro that is around 5' and her normal board is a cwb ride 5'3. I started her on my 4-skim thinking the smaller board would be the ticket but after dragging her around the lake for a while, she popped right up on the daniello.
agreed that it's more about skill than the board size but getting a tad smaller board could be the mental ticket that gets her up and freeriding.
Yes, I ride the Alias, good board, might look at the 4'6" version of it also. Just need to go demo a few.Quote:
Originally Posted by jmvotto
Just an update, got a great deal on a HL Broadcast 4'8". Will follow-up with a review once I have enough to make it meaningful.