Shopping For Wakesurf Gear
With so many different options to choose from it can often be quite overwhelming searching for the best gear for your purpose. This process is made even more challenging and stressful when you don't know the right questions to ask. Our goal is to help ease the burden of buying new wakesurfing gear by giving you all of the information you need up front. In this wakesurf board buyers guide we will go over the main types of wakesurf boards along with how to determine which style of board will best fit your needs. For a quick overview of this buyers guide click the thumbnail to the right or the button below to watch our video on YouTube.
Skim Style Wakesurf Board
Choosing the right wakesurf board often comes down to your riding style and skill level that you ride at or plan to progress to. A skim style wakesurf board is generally going to tailor to intermediate and advanced riders rather than beginner riders. This is due to the way the boards are designed. Skim boards are thinner in construction and generally have far less buoyancy. While a lighter board is highly desirable for skilled riders trying to take their tricks to the next level, the lack of buoyancy can make learning to get up and stay in the pocket slightly more challenging since skim boards often require a shorter and steeper wave.
Aside from the basic construction of the board, the shape and fin layout greatly affect they type of tricks you can perform. Generally a skim style board works best for riders looking to perform surface spins and shove-it style tricks. One of our favorite skim style boards to use is the Phase 5 Hammer Head, this board is a great skim style board that comes in a variety of sizes to accommodate many different sizes of riders.
Surf Style Wakesurf Board
Now that you have heard about skim style wakesurf boards lets dive into what a surf style board may have to offer. Not all riders are going to ride the same or perform the same types of tricks. While skim style boards are ideal for surface and shove-it style tricks, a surf style wakesurf board is ideal for cruising and air tricks. Due to these boards having a thicker and more traditional construction they tend to be far more buoyant. The benefit to this added buoyancy is the ability to ride longer and mellower waves. This also makes a surf style board ideal for beginner riders as well. Some of our favorite surf style wakesurf boards have to be the Doomswell Neo, Ronix Coalfish Classic, and Liquid Force Rocket.
While surf and skim are the primary wakesurf board types, there is also a third category referred to as hybrid wakesurf boards. These boards blur the lines between surf and skim, providing exceptional performance to accommodate more than one riding style. Some of these boards include the Ronix Fish Skim and Doomswell Nubstep.