As a beginner surfer, you’ll want to buy a board which is going to make it as easy as possible to learn on. You’ll also want a board which is going to make learning to surf as safe and fun as possible. In this post we look at the 3 best surfboards for beginners. For the above reasons we advise choosing a soft top surfboard. Soft top surfboards have a the following benefits:
Stability – due to their foam construction and weight soft top surfboards are a lot more stable than traditional PU or epoxy surfboards. When learning it’s essential that a surfer has stability when they are popping up onto the board.
Safe – Once again because these boards consist only of foam they’re much safer than traditional fibreglass or epoxy surfboards. Safer both for yourself and for others in the water around you. When you are learning to surf, you will be falling a fair amount. Your board will be getting thrown around in the water. If you’re surfing around others this can be dangerous. Using a soft top surfboard will minimise the risk of injury in the water
Durable – PU and epoxy boards can pick up cracks, scratches and dings very easily. Getting these dings repaired can anything from $20 and upwards. Beginner surfers will often be falling on their boards and so the propensity to ding a board as a beginner is pretty high.
These days surfboards fall into three main shape types, namely, shortboards, Mini Mals and longboards. Most beginners will choose to learn on a Mini Mal or a longboard, however to due to the advent of the soft top surfboard many beginner surfers are also now choosing to learn shortboards. For this reason we are going to recommended one board from each of these three categories
Best Longboard for Beginners
We recommend the 8’8″ surfboard package by Gold Coast Surfboards. This is a really good longboard to learn on and what’s great is that Gold Coast sell you the whole package which includes, fins, a leash, a stomp pad and board bag.
The board features a wide shape with a pinched in squash tail with rubber bumper (for sharper turns and safe vertical storage). It also has a compressed croc-skin textured foam deck which means you won’t need any wax. It’s got hand tapered rails and a beginner friendly nose rocker to help prevent nose diving.
The board is made through a mold and vacuum sealed strengthening process, rather than the common and cheap heat lamination process. The EPS foam closed cell core will not take on water & has 3 Stringers – 2 full length hand resined wooden stringers and one 2/3 Length fiberglass center rod.
Best Mini Mal For Beginners
We recommend the 7’2″ Mini Mal by Raystreak. The board comes with a leash and fins and offers up 62 litres of volume. This makes wave riding nice and easy. It has a crocodile groove foam top which provides superb traction. It has double reinforced epoxy sealed poplar stringers, a 6oz fiber-glass internal epoxy core and 100% waterproof EPS foam. It’s also got nose and tail bumpers to protect the board from getting dinged up.
Best Shortboard For Beginners
The funnest soft top shortboard we’ve ridden to date has been a fish by Goldcoast Surfboards. It’s really poppy and fast even in small waves which makes it an ideal board for a beginner looking to try surfing on a shortboard.
Being a fish the board it comes with a quad FCS (Dual tab) fin box set up. Note that the board does not include fins. The board does come with a pre-installed GoPro mount on the nose which is handy.
Machined, hand tapered rails to allow the board’s edge to cut through the face of the wave as you fly down the line. It has a high performance squash tail and thruster nose for aggressive high performance surfing.
All that foam makes paddling and getting into waves easier, helping you get the most out of your surf sessions. Fingerprint texture on the foam deck means that no wax is needed. The board ranges in length from 4’10” to 6’8″. We recommend going for the 6’0″. It sells on Amazon for $300.
