My wife is 60 kg and has experience with high volume inflatable SUPs in flat water and rivers. I want to take her surfing. What sort of longboard would be ideal to try to demo/borrow? Seems like boards that have volumes 2-x her weight would be performance models that are maybe less stable than all arounder? On first time, should I way overshoot on volume (like 160L) to reduce wobbles and frustration, or will a XL board be slow and harder to catch waves on (like my inflatable is)?Thanks a bunch for any help.

Timid or brave?
Does she adapt quickly?
Is she adventurous?
Is she athletic?

As Colas said ! 120 lts or less if she wants to surf ! Big boards r not good to learn on ! Surfin on a sup is a mind set of really wanting to do it ! Falling in and frustration r the norm !

I am 60 - 63kg dry ....but make. I have a few boards at 120ish. Speeed 88 and Acid 91. Both performance shape boards even though high volume . On wave they are fine . Off board and in white water harder to manage . If surfing 2ft or less no probs to manage away from crowds . The Acid can handle a bit more juice beat that volume . The Speeed with its parallel outline wants to just throw you off when waves get faster or larger . There use to be a board in Starboard range called Converse . 9'0 by 30. That was a great shape for allround paddling and small waves for lighter riders

Get her a high performance longboard shape around 100l. It will be very stable in flat water and will let her gradually progress to bigger and bigger waves. She will never outgrow it and if she gets hooked on SUP surfing she can add an 80l or so board to the quiver. There are in fact quite a few production SUP longboards in that size, including Starboard, Naish, Sunova, and Infinity.

I went through the similar process with my daughter who is 5'11 and 65kg. She started on a 8'4x29x105l sup longboard (custom Hobie) and after a challenging couple of sessions she is very comfortable and loves the board. She has recently got a 85l "shortboardish" style sup but does not plan to get rid of a longboard.

An old video but listen to what Scott says at around 1 min19 onward about riders for this 9 by 30. An ideal shape for anyone on small waves

SupChickadee said..
How old is your wife?
i'm a great believer in getting a sup big enough to get "glide" as women aren't as strong paddlers as men.
To get the most enjoyment from sup surfing at the beginning and also for less than perfect days i would recommend a sup around 9x30 up to around 130 litres is the sweet spot.
A sup at that size in as light a construction as you can afford (or 2nd hand) to make carting around easier.
Yes ladies being lighter in Kg's can in theory go for very small volume sups, but what about the enjoyment factor of a sup that can easily handle any conditions and catch waves with ease, which is what you should get at the above specs. and enjoy the fun factor

This sounds right to me, as a beginner myself. My wife's 39. My first times on hardboard was on fast (for me) longboard that made it easy to catch waves early. The shorter board I bought is more fun on wave but definitely harder for me to catch waves. I'd have been fine learning on it but wouldn't have been as fun... though I had a blast flailing in a giant inflatable years back so I'm easily entertained.

Kisutch said..
My wife is 60 kg and has experience with high volume inflatable SUPs in flat water and rivers. I want to take her surfing. What sort of longboard would be ideal to try to demo/borrow? Seems like boards that have volumes 2-x her weight would be performance models that are maybe less stable than all arounder? On first time, should I way overshoot on volume (like 160L) to reduce wobbles and frustration, or will a XL board be slow and harder to catch waves on (like my inflatable is)?Thanks a bunch for any help.

Hi Kisutch
Sorry I'm late to the party...
If your wife has never surfed before, the combined challenge of learning waves and lineup behavior will be fairly substantial.... add to that a board that has "theoretical stability" could possibly make it harder than necessary.

By theoretical stability, I mean using standard volume and width guides, as accepted by experienced surfers.
Most newbies will benefit greatly from a board with more than ample surface area.
Volume is simply a number that can be arrived at from many directions. Thickness, length, shape.

A design with reasonable width through the length, adds a lot of support from all areas of the board.
I personally think an allround shape 9'5 x 32" at any volume under 160 L would be worth considering for an easier transition to wave riding.
With fullness in the nose and hips, but thin enough to keep the weight down.

Over the years, I have put MANY women on boards in the surf... and I always choose 9'5/9'6 x 32 around 150 liters.
This is a magic size that gives easy stability, good glide into waves and manageable weight (all the boards I put them on are well constructed)

Even with youth, easy stability and calm conditions, new SUP surfers struggle with the challenge.
I figure, why not make it as pleasant as possible.... and give the best chance for them to fall in love with the sport?

After they advance to a smaller board, the 9'6 will always be a good recreational paddler for family and friends.... or a wonky conditions board for surf.

First ever surf session for the girl in these pics, who is a seasoned distance racer, mid 30's and still found herself kneeling a lot in glassy conditions. 9'5 x 32" at 160 liters was NOT too big for her.... it was what she needed to enjoy her first attempt in the surf.

She loved that the board was only 10 kg, for an easy carry, for the long walk back to the car.

Well, width also depends on your height.

a width of 30" 1/4 for a A 5'6" gal will be proportionally like 33" for a 6' tall guy.

Well, I am a bit under 5'6" myself, and 30" was easy for me (and my daughters), provided the board had wide nose and tail, which is the more important thing for a beginner. 32" but with pulled in nose and tail will be worse, both because of the added unstability and row effect of the curved outline.

Quick update on this in case it's helpful.

It took forever to line up surf conditions, childcare, and work to finally get in the waves with my wife. She could stand OK on my 8' SUP on our local river, but for surfing I borrowed my friends 10.5 x 29.75" Naish Nalu so that she'd have more glide and stability wouldn't be an issue. We had a channel and infrequent knee to thigh high waves, so getting the larger board back outside wasn't an issue. It would have been too big for her to carry down (especially in the wind). She fell off the back on the first few attempts, then caught like a dozen waves, perfect day.

Next time I think I'll borrow my friend's 9'x28" longboard, but I think the larger board was perfect for day-1. One thing that was clear was how carrying the board to the water was a limiting factor --in the future that would drive ideal board size as much as performance I think, for her. I suppose you could get one of those cart thingies...

cheers

So from 1st post 8 months ago you now know that narrower is better ! Go the long board ! Looking fwd to the hearing about it in 2022

Have to say I disagree with all the gents suggesting 32" wide boards.

I'm a 5'11" male with fairly broad shoulders and I won't ride anything wider than 30" because it's a shoulder injury waiting to happen (all that reaching sideways is not good for the rotators...). Women have far narrower shoulders (unless you're a weightlifter in the over 85kg category... Some of those women dwarf me...) so the effect is even worse...

My wife who is 5'4" and weighs 2/5 of 5/8 of nothing (i.e. 52-54 kg...) definitely agrees. The ideal board for her when we started out 10 years ago was a 9' x 29" x 130l Surftech Al Merrick. Narrow enough that she wasn't reaching out to get to the water but super stable and still had a bit of performance. She's now down to a 7'8" x 28" x 98l Smik Hipster Twin. And she's going smaller...


SupChickadee got it right with the dimensions and I know she knows a thing or two about riding waves (and teaching beginners...).

LastSupper said..
So from 1st post 8 months ago you now know that narrower is better ! Go the long board ! Looking fwd to the hearing about it in 2022

I'm gonna go full on SUP instructor next time and bring two boards, trying to convince her to bail on work next week and go out, hoping she will ruin her career for surfing like I currently am lol

Mahanumah said..
Have to say I disagree with all the gents suggesting 32" wide boards.

I'm a 5'11" male with fairly broad shoulders and I won't ride anything wider than 30" because it's a shoulder injury waiting to happen (all that reaching sideways is not good for the rotators...). Women have far narrower shoulders (unless you're a weightlifter in the over 85kg category... Some of those women dwarf me...) so the effect is even worse...

My wife who is 5'4" and weighs 2/5 of 5/8 of nothing (i.e. 52-54 kg...) definitely agrees. The ideal board for her when we started out 10 years ago was a 9' x 29" x 130l Surftech Al Merrick. Narrow enough that she wasn't reaching out to get to the water but super stable and still had a bit of performance. She's now down to a 7'8" x 28" x 98l Smik Hipster Twin. And she's going smaller...


SupChickadee got it right with the dimensions and I know she knows a thing or two about riding waves (and teaching beginners...).

I definitely love my friends 9x28" longboard. I'm scheming on the quiver potential I could get via my wife. Like what if I could get her an Infinity New Deal 9x28 for Xmax and then steal it... But board dims a distant second from figuring out childcare so we can get out together more often. cheers

Ooh I wanna try a 98L Hipster twin -- have you tried your wife's board? what's the domestic politics around using it. It could be bad for me cause I tend to whack the rail when wiping out.

That's a nice board but I'm in US:)