Board advice for grom

[Gumby]

Hi guys,

Looking for advice on what board my son (turning 9 in a few weeks) should be steered towards in the near future.
He’s currently riding my 5’11 x 21 x 2 ½, fairly flat rocker.

He’s progressed well. Started on a 7ft foamy start of last year. I thought he’d be on that all year, but he stood up first go and was only on it a few weeks before moving to my old 6'3" fish then the current board several months ago.

He’s now paddling himself into broken waves and small un-broken waves. I'm still pushing him into bigger un-broken waves. He can pop up well/consistently and ride the wave well (basic turns and staying on the face).
Paddling back out is no problem, apart from not being able to duck dive. The paddling challenges are probably a combo of strength and confidence to take the drop. Sometimes it looks as if the board is too wide to allow his arms to get deep into the water.
He’s been in surf clinics for the last 6 months and is receiving some good coaching there.

I’m trying to find that balance between maintaining ease of paddling (width/thickness) vs progressing the turning and learning duck dives, and making sure the drop in length and width isn’t too shocking (although kids seem to adjust pretty well). I know he can get away with the flat rocker and thickness when it’s that short and he’s still learning, so it feels like it comes down to the length and width.

Most glass boards aimed at groms appear to be in the 5’2 – 5’8 range and anywhere from 17” – 19” wide.
Saw a few that looked like a good option which were about 5’6” x 19 x 2 3/8.
Always felt like some of those standard designs could be a bit wider but I can only trust the expertise of the shaper and the fact that there are plenty of groms out there on these boards.

Thoughts? Similar experiences?

cheers

[aaarating]

Throw those boards away and buy him a computer. Tell him to start developing a highly popular gaming app for other 9 year old kids and before you know it some giant tech company will have bought it from him for $100m and you (brilliant dad) get to go surfing whenever and wherever you want! Or you could just give him your old board like in the olden days when I learned to surf?

[Gumby]

Will call that Plan B aaarating

[scot]

I got my young bloke one of these http://www.firewiresurfboards.com/surfb ... d=gromflex when he turned 10. I went with the 5'0.
He hasnt had any problems with it being too small. He can paddle it and duckdive.
When its real small and fat he jumps back onto an old single fin.

[Gumby]

Thanks for the link Scot. They look pretty cool.