http://www.lymanland.com/surf-lesson-devon/
surf lesson devon
Discovery Surf School – Bigbury on-Sea, Bantham. Surf Lessons and courses.
i am going down to devon in the summer for two weeks, which means Surfing…?
…i was planning to get a whole day lesson, then rent out a soft-board, and i was planning to surf pretty much continuously, depending on the weather etc. so how long would you say it would take until i could get on a hard-board? i didnt think there was much difference apart from innocent by standers would lose their teeth?
I cant really Give you a specific answer because everyone is different, but I can tell you about my transition from a soft top to a longboard. Well the first time I ever went surfing was with an instructor. Maybe the conditions were really friendly, but i was able to stand up on my second try with a fluid motion. I spent three hours with the instructor, and then retired for the day. I loved it so much, that within a week I bought myself a 9ft fiberglass longboard and used it just like the 6ft foam board. The only difference was it took me about 10 tries before i actually stood up.
The most difficult thing about the transition from a foam board to a longboard is where you lay on the board.
On the foam board you will be told by your instructor to rest your toes on the end of the foam board. listen to him for it will work fine with the board, but for a fiberglass longboard it is completely different.
On a fiberglass longboard you cannot (most likely) put your toes on the end of the board. Doing this will shift your weight to the back of the longboard creating too much drag and you will not be able to keep up with the wave no matter how hard you paddle. In order to decrease the drag you will need to shift your body as forward as you can without letting the nos dip in. when you find your sweet spot, do an up dog (yoga pose lol look it up), and paddle in this position. This may feel weird at first, but if you can master this you will be able to catch more waves with a fiberglass board.
To answer your main question, the major difference that I noticed on my 9 ft longboard compared to the 6 ft foam board was that the longboard was not as balanced. Meaning, after I padded and felt ready for the pop up, when I pushed down, the board wobbled a whole lot more then the foam. one more thing is that you need to paddle a heck of a lot more then when using a foam.
Hope my story and instructors could help !!
Good Luck and have Fun!!
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