Thinking of SUP'ing, need some advice.

[colas]

my board might not have been big enough. I'm a big guy, 6'2 and 215 pounds, I've been told by some people that for a longboard I needed something bigger than 9'0

9'0" is OK to start on, however your board may be lacking in volume (width and thickness). Too long a board is actually harder to start on as you have to avoid nosediving.

Like others, I think you should try to learn to surf to get the feeling for things. This doesn't prevent you to begin also to learn top handle a SUP in flat water too.

My advice for learning to surf is to practice out of the waves. Just put your board nose slightly down on a bed or pillows or lawn, and practice getting up thousands of times till it becomes automatic. You can also do it in flat water: stroke as fast as you can for 5-10m, then get up while the board is moving. I used to do this a lot to prepare for surfing trips: sets of 300 meters paddling, then series of getting up (and duckdiving). Surf is very hard to learn because each wave is different, and you get very few per  session so it is difficult to train. Compensate by training out of the waves. Actually this is valid for SUP too: try to train as much on flat water as possible, pretending to take a wave, to turn before a wave, etc...

[PonoBill]

I'm a big guy too. My favorite prone board is actually supposed to be a sup. A Jimmy Lewis 11'7". It's too narrow to be stable for sup, and probably long ago discontinued, but you'll find any really big board to be easier at first. I have other, much shorter surfboards, but the JL is really fun.

I to think it's best to learn to surf prone first, but not completely necessary. Go demo, have fun, and remember that there's a lot more to sup than just joining the crowd at breaks.

[Sponge]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the responses

As I said before, I did a lot of surfing, I've been out to the line up, I know about etiquette, how to read waves, etc. I've caught waves before on a longboard, really small ones right when it was turning into white water then rode in front of it a little on the face of the wave, but that only happened a few times in my years of trying (years off and on mind you). I usually either could not catch them or would be in too close and get beat up and rolled up by them, only catching whitewash at best.

One of my biggest things was, it just never felt natural to me. Laying down, then standing up, the entire process never felt natural or good. It never just clicked in my head exactly how to do it right. But the funny thing is, once I was standing up I had all the balance in the world, I could turn, and even thrust my longboard around. I had plenty of balance. I've never been some one in life with really quick reflexes. Mine are precise, but not quick.

For these reasons stand up paddle boarding caught my eye. For most people I'm sure they can get the hang of surfing pretty easily, maybe even more so than SUP, but for me when I'm trying to get up I'm just not quick enough and the process of doing so while moving down a wave just never felt right to me, but again, once I was up and riding (even be it big whitewash or right in front of the whitewash) I felt perfectly natural and felt very balanced.

I'm sure there's plenty to learn with SUP, especially getting your board out when the waves are building up anything over about 3-4 feet (I'm still not sure how I would do it, can you turtle a SUP?!) and standing on water I'm sure sounds easier than it is, but again I'm quite balanced once I'm standing.

I just want to be able to surf a true surfboard, which I think SUP's definitely are (they're just big and you're using a paddle). I love the feeling of riding a wave, and I'd love to do it standing up instead of just laying down all the time.

[aircube]

RE your longboard surfing: paddle sooner and harder.  If you are 215lbs why not buy a 10 or 11' longboard?

If you can't get into waves early paddling prone on a longboard I think it's likely that you will have trouble standing in big waves and chop and paddling into waves on a SUP.  I find it easier to prone paddle a longboard into small waves than it is to stand and paddle a SUP into waves.  You can always start out paddling the SUP into waves while in a kneeling position and standup once you have caught the wave.

If you go the SUP route and plan to surf it rather than flatwater paddle it, go for a board that is equal to about 20% less litres of volume than your weight in pounds.  172-215 litres and 10-11

[Sponge]

Hey there everyone. Still looking into SUPing just a bit low on money at the moment. However, been finding some good deals lately on craigslist but they're always on shorter boards. One in particular...

It's 10'6 long 28.5 wide and 4.5 thick. Would something like this be too small for a guy my size to start on? Mind you, I want to primarily paddle board for surfing purposes but of course want to start on something big enough to and something big enough to catch small little waves. Ohh, and just as a reminder I'm 6'1 215ish.

Thanks for any help

[Strand Leper]

Go for it... It will be tough at first... but that is the size I started on... at 6'1" ish and 215 ish.

You will be able to surf it after a few very, very frustrating days when you want to quit, you are sure that you are the biggest kook in the world... and why, oh why, did I get this stupid short board...

Then, six months later you will wonder why you are sufing such a big boat and be trolling CL for smaller boards...    (no offense to dudes who like the bigger boards...)

Tim

[colas]

It's 10'6 long 28.5 wide and 4.5 thick. Would something like this be too small for a guy my size to start on?

28.5 wide is a bit narrow to start on for your height/weight. You can do it if you are prepared to spend some time in totally flat water to gain balance, but you will progress much more rapidly with something in the 30"+ range.

[1paddle2paddle]

At 190 pounds, the first SUP I got was the Bonga 10 x 27" wide.  Incredibly frustrating to try to learn on.  Sold it and got a 12' bomber.  Was able to surf small waves away from crowds.  But I couldn't really "surf" it because of its size.  Sold that and got the Naish 10'6 x 28" wide.  Even on board #3 and doing SUP for about 6 months, the Naish was a bit of a challenge but finally I had a board on which I could stand up paddle into waves comfortably and had a board that could surf.

I think at 200 lbs a board less than 29" wide will be challenging to learn on, but anything is possible.  Now and then I see a guy who started around when I did and he has the same Bonga I first had.  He rips on it now, and he didn't have to buy and sell about 5 boards like I did.