SURFBOARD TYPES

What’s the best type of Surfboard to ride in Fort Lauderdale?

There are many types of surfboards that work well in South Florida. Which board will work for you depends on many factors. Your surfing ability is one of the biggest factors along with you height and weight that help determine which type of board to purchase. A general rule with most surfboards is the longer the board is, the smaller the wave you can ride. A longboard will catch waves easier, paddle faster and keep it’s speed better than a shortboard. So longboards tend to be one of the best choices for beginners. When trying to figure out what board to get it’s a good idea to get a board made in Florida, most surfboard builders that live in Florida know our surf really well and can produce boards that work well in the types of waves we get here.

Learning to read the ocean conditions and figure out the timing has to be one of the most difficult tasks to master in surfing. Each wave is different and sandbars are constantly changing so reading the changing ocean conditions takes a ton of water time to figure out. 

Soft Surfboards

Back in the day soft surfboards were only for beginners and you would reach the limit of their performance pretty quick. These days softboards have gotten so much better, better materials, better fins, stiffer flex and real shapes combine to offer surfboards that are perfectly suited for beginners and above. Performance orientated soft surfboards will allow you to progress your surfing, these boards are capable of some pretty radical stuff. Just look at Ben Gravy or Jamie O’Brien and you’ll see what’s possible on softboards these days.  

Traditional Hard Surfboards Types

The 2 main types of traditional surfboards are Polyester and EPS Epoxy. They both have a foam core and use fiberglass and some type of resin to seal the board. Getting into the positives and negatives of each type can fill a whole book. Just make sure you know what kind you are getting when you purchase a board, if you ever have to repair it, you will need to know which type it is.

Keeping it super simple, Poly is the traditional way of building surfboards with polyurethane foam core and polyester resin saturated fiberglass on top. Poly’s have a very comfortable smooth ride and many people’s go to choice in surfboard construction.

Epoxy surfboard construction is the other method of building surfboards. They feature and EPS or Styrofoam core with epoxy resin saturated fiberglass on top. Epoxy boards are usually a little lighter than poly’s with a little more float per liter too. Most people find that riding epoxy surfboards in tiny surf works well, since they are very light and responsive. The disadvantage of Epoxy is that the resin is much more expensive than poly resin an they feel uneven choppy water more than a poly, the boards chatter or feel a little bouncy in bumpy conditions. Which board you like is a personal preference and no two people surf exactly the same so everyone will have a different opinion on which board works best for them.

SURFBOARD SHAPES

Longboards – typically 8+ feet, a true longboard starts at 9 feet but you start to feel the longboard type of ride at 8 feet and above.  Longboards love to glide and keep their speed up, so they work really well in small surf. Longboard surfing is usually less radical than riding a shortboard, one word that comes to mind is graceful when describing their ride.

Funboards – Usually from 6’6″ upto 8′  the nose of a funshape or min mal is rounder than a shortboard and they blend some of the glide of a longboard with the maneuverability of a smaller board.  These are usually one of the best choices for beginner or casual surfers.

Hybrids – Typically this type of board is a smaller funshape or fishy shortboard, a little longer than your typical shortboard and fuller wider nose, they do pretty good on some small to medium surf. I’d say they ride more like a shortboard with some extra paddle power due to the fact they usually have a few more liters of volume.

Fish – A surfboard that came out in the 1970’s, it’s typically a twin fin that was made to make the most of smaller conditions. It’s called a fish due to the tail of the board resembling a fishes tail. On a surfboard that’s called a swallow tail. These boards are really suited to the type of surf we get in South Florida. They can make a waist high wave feel like a shoulder high wave. If you have been surfing for awhile and haven’t tried a fish, you are missing out. 

Shortboards – Shortboards are the Ferrari’s of surfboards. Built for speed and fast radical direction changes. They are very sensitive to rider input and are the most difficult to type of board to ride. If you’re looking to do some radical high performance surfing then this is the board for you.

Volume – The volume of a surfboard refers to the overall flotation a board has. It is measured in liters and helps you figure out how a board is going float / catch waves. There are many volume calculators out there to help guide you in selecting the right board, but keep in mind South Florida waves are pretty weak, so foam is your friend down here. Personally I’d rather have a little more float than not enough. A light weight board with a good amount of volume and float seems to work well in south Florida.