Advice on size for first time build

[burchas]

I agree with A10 on this one. I suspended my own custom 9 footer gun for
a Gong Zero until I can find a way to make mine a hollow board using bladder
mold and with some fancy construction.

[SupScott]

But would the 10ft be too much of a leap for you in those conditions?

you mean the 10ft would be too small? They only seem to do the NFA in 8/9/10', nothing bigger. Alternatively, there's the 10'6 Perv @165L FSP. Half cruiser, half surfer.

[SupScott]

Yeah I got a good deal from Gong on end-of-year stock. But their prices are still amazing - they are full PVC sandwich boards, after all, which you usually only get on high-end boards like Jimmy Lewis etc.

Virtually any hard board will be a great step up from your inflatable. The NFA is a really great board. But would the 10ft be too much of a leap for you in those conditions? Big boards tend to be more fun in small weak mushy conditions. So don’t rule out the 11ft NFA maybe. You’ll love the extra stability, and if your waves are really crappy, you aren’t going to be pulling any fancy manoeuvres anyway. The 11ft will still be hugely better to surf than your inflatable: not even in the same class, in fact.

A good thing about buying a production board is that if you buy a popular model it will have resale value when you decide to move on. A home-grown board will be worth absolutely zip, even if you have poured a thousand pounds-worth of materials into it. You’d probably end up sticking it on the wall, or making a table out of it etc because you can’t sell it.

Just thought I'd close this off... I pulled the trigger on the NFA 10' back in August. I've been out on it 6 times so far, 3 in the last two weeks. It is pure class! The step up from the inflatable was a bit tricky as the sweet spot is tiny in comparison so balance was a bit of an issue at the start but I've pretty much got the hang of it. My surfing has really progressed and I'm stoked with it. So glad I didn't go down the self-build route.
I even saved the €100+ delivery as my buddy was driving through France with his camper van collecting his own board from Gong and got mine too. It was meant to be!