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Hey guys,
I've only done a little bit of strapless riding before but fancy the option - from what I can see on here it seems a normal surfboard will work better than a kite specific one albeit not necessarily last as long. I'm light (65kg) and usually seem to be pretty easy on my equipment. There are loads of surfboards available second hand pretty cheap but usually fairly well used and with 'various repairs' which always puts me off. For a bit more (350 English pounds) I can get a really nice Pyzel 'The Flash' 5'10 board with no repairs, 2 sets (quad and thruster) of really nice quality carbon fins and a centre drive fin, leash (not that I'll use it) and bag.
Recommendations and anyone used Pyzel surfboards?
Cheers!

How tall are you and do you have any plans to paddle surf it ?

I'm 6" / 182cm & 85kg nd have a 5"10 Mitu Monteiro pro and it's honestly too big for me. I reckon at your weight it will feel like a SUP. If it's your first surfboard I would go secondhand and don't worry about any repairs. Usually the first thing that willl happen in breaking waves is youll crash and your board will get tumbled and washed up on the beach. We don't use legropes and I lose my board 3-4 times a session if it's big so it's something that is normal on our beaches. A Vader / Vanguard shape works especially well - I've been riding a 5,0 copy and it's mint.

Thanks for that - unlikely to paddle surf it. 5'0 sounds tiny to me - only a tiny bit longer than the twin tip!

andylc wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 08, 2017 2:53 pm

Thanks for that - unlikely to paddle surf it. 5'0 sounds tiny to me - only a tiny bit longer than the twin tip!

I'm 180 lbs and I use a 5'1 Vanguard and it feels great! My first strapless surfboard (after my shinnster) was a wide 5'6" Brett Warner paddle surfboard that I bought for $70 with fins and repeatedly trashed for over a year doing downwinders in Perth. I busted and re epoxied the nose 4 times, but it's taken repeated abuse and returned for more like a battered housewife. I still take it out and have a blast when I'm fixing my Vanguard, which has happened more than I'd like or have expected.

If you are going to get a Firewire Vanguard/Vader I'd recommend getting the kite construction. My normal construction 5'1" Vanguard is a fragile drama queen in comparison to my Warner, which if you read and believe the Firewire marketing literature shouldn't be the case. That said, after snapping 40cm of the nose off my Vanguard and re epoxying it back together with an extra layer of glass( and some dowels that run to the nose and not 40cm before) I love the feel of it and it's still pretty light.

At your weight you have plenty of used <5'5" surfboard options for sale cheaply. Once you have some experience you can figure out what you want in a kite surfboard and it's ok if you ding and bust up an old surfboard learning.

Interesting shapes those....interesting price too....