First surfboard

[Slappysan]

I was thinking of getting a shinnster for my first strapless board and use it also for light wind days. Any thoughts?

The Shinnster is an excellent first surfboard choice, one of the best that will allow you to progress right away. It also has crazy flex which helps eat the chop. On top of that its snowboard construction will take much more abuse. The only real fault with the Shinnster is the weight, but that only matters once you start doing airs. As far as LW riding the Shinnster isn't an amazing LW choice, it's still fun in LW and it's super smooth but it's low end isn't going to match that of wider boards and the hyper flexiness of the Shinnster doesn't help in LW either.

For first surfboards I recommend:
- forget straps, they get in the way and add weight
- get a board that rides backwards very well and wax the nose as sometimes you'll want to change directions quickly without doing a jibe/tack (the Shinnster rides amazing backwards BTW)
- get a wide board, width gives stability and a wide board will be much easier to learn foot switches. Width is also the primary attribute for LW (not length)
- stay away from sharp fins

[Trent hink]

If you want a board for lighter winds, get one of the so-called potato-chip boards or something resembling the Steve Lis fish designs.

These designs are short and very wide, and have very little rocker, so they can go fast very easily at the expense of super quick maneuverability, which is exactly what you need if you are trying to ride underpowered on a kite in flat water or midsized chop or mushy waves.

They can also work very well in real waves if you have the balls to rig a kite that is maybe a bit smaller than what all the cool kids are riding.

As for the Shinster, I sort of get it, but it is nothing like a having real surfboard.

A real surf board drives off the fins, not the rails.

If you are into that (driving the board off the rails) you might as well just try a skimboard or alaia

… All of them can surf, but it depends on your skill level and what you really want and need.

[kct]

I used a $100 Craigslist surfboard for a few dozen sessions. It has loads of pressure dents but otherwise it's been holding up fine. If it ever properly breaks I'll replace it with another similar board.

I'm sure the kite specific boards are good but I've not been able to justify the price given the huge surfboard market here in southern California

[bkkite]

I had a great experience learning on an "old' North Nugget 5'2 (before they became duotone). It was a wider board with more volume, that worked well in really light winds. I learned to ride it on flatter water, and then eventually took it out on smaller waves. I'm not sure they make anything like that anymore, maybe its their new Fish design.

[mplamplampla]

Firstly, I 'd like to thank everybody that contributed to the discussion (that I kind of hijacked). I also found a good offer for an rrd ace v1 (at the simple lte construction) . It is short but wide with plenty of volume. As I understand it will be good for lightwind (they say little rocker) and plenty of width so easy for a beginner. Am I right? Does anyone have any impression or review of the board? Lastly, do you think it will be able to handle the chop at a toleratable level? I know it won't be as good as a tt or shinnster.

[Trent hink]

The type of board you are looking at can handle just about any chop state.

The downside is, if you want to use it in rough conditions, you will probably have to go slower than you might like, and/or rig a kite much smaller than everyone else around you.

From my experience, this type of board will work very fine in up to waist-high wave faces, and a bit more than that if the wind is making the waves mushy.

Beyond that, It can get a bit dicy...