So I told myself I would do this once I had a sufficient amount of time surfing my addvance. When I was looking for a board to help me step down from a long board I found the addvance had little to no competition. I read reviews but most reviews, although good, were coming from experienced surfers moving down from a long board or up from a short board. I had to trust in the description of the board, reviews, and my ability to make a large jump from a 10ft longboard to a 6'6 floaty board. A brief summary of myself should be helpful, I am in good shape, 5'9, 170 lbs, and 27 years old. I have been surfing for a little less than a year and living 3 hours from the beach find myself lucky to go out 2-3 times a month. I primarily surf low period wind swell beach breaks with very low chance for clean conditions. Actually surf here is almost always choppy and disorganized.
Well after three sessions on the board, I am catching waves, bottom turning, and going down the line. Paddling is definitely tougher than the longboard but that was too be expected and I still find myself making it outside on low period wind swell beach breaks with little to no channels without much difficulty. I am still a bit wobbly when paddling on choppy water but I am sure that will pass with time. Popping up has been by far the largest hurdle, as I learned to popup on the longboard with my feet. Now on the 6'6 my feet and part of my legs are in the water so I have to do a proper pop up. Everything seemed to click on my last session and I was popping up fine and finally getting to surf the board. Turning was much easier than my 10ft long board, the board felt way more stable than I expected for such a drop in length, and the board was really really fast on the drop but still stable.
So for those of you considering this board that might have a similar background or situation as me, do it. That last session where everything clicked was better than the last 20 sessions on my longboard. I have no doubt a larger addvance would have been easier to transition to, but I didn't feel like replacing my longboard with a hybrid board because Texas has small surf all summer long. Surfing the log is still better than not surfing at all and now I have a board for days where there is just a bit more than a ripple.
Hope this helps someone. I am still stoked from my last session.
Well after three sessions on the board, I am catching waves, bottom turning, and going down the line. Paddling is definitely tougher than the longboard but that was too be expected and I still find myself making it outside on low period wind swell beach breaks with little to no channels without much difficulty. I am still a bit wobbly when paddling on choppy water but I am sure that will pass with time. Popping up has been by far the largest hurdle, as I learned to popup on the longboard with my feet. Now on the 6'6 my feet and part of my legs are in the water so I have to do a proper pop up. Everything seemed to click on my last session and I was popping up fine and finally getting to surf the board. Turning was much easier than my 10ft long board, the board felt way more stable than I expected for such a drop in length, and the board was really really fast on the drop but still stable.
So for those of you considering this board that might have a similar background or situation as me, do it. That last session where everything clicked was better than the last 20 sessions on my longboard. I have no doubt a larger addvance would have been easier to transition to, but I didn't feel like replacing my longboard with a hybrid board because Texas has small surf all summer long. Surfing the log is still better than not surfing at all and now I have a board for days where there is just a bit more than a ripple.
Hope this helps someone. I am still stoked from my last session.
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