Well with 3 daughters between 8 and 14 we have had more exposure to kids boards than most. To get things going we had 2 customs made one for Nesha and one for Kristi as in 2008 there were few if any sub 9 foot boards.
The boards were hand crafted by Dave Boyd Imperial Surf, with full resin tints and were designed to be stable in the flat and with fin changes shreaders in the surf.
This is Nesha's 8'4 x 26 x 4 1/2 Dave Boyd Imperial Custom.
It will easily support up to 80kg and it shreads in the surf.
Video of Nesha surfing at OG
These Proteck fins are the safest we have found to use for the kids.
Both the leading and trailing edges are soft rubber and minimise the risk of cuts. I cannot recomment them enough.
Thanks for the advice Phil.
Just trying to get my 10 yr old daughter going in the surf.
She's been using my *board 10'5 but just can't generate enough boardspeed to catch those small waves that are commensurate with her beginner status.
So my next step, Plan B, will be to just push her onto little 1' ers and get her feeling the sensation of surfing.
Then it just has to be a smaller board of the type you describe - Plan C maybe, for next summer.
Great advice about the rubber fins.
DC 8.0 in action!
The DC 8.0 is very light and easy to carry, Dale Chapman really got it right with this board. Easily floates Nesha at 38kg . It has a nice concave under the nose into a spiral V enginroom that generates huge amounts of speed. Cant recomend this board highly enough.
Naish 8.0
Nesha at 38kg can easily ride this board in small waves and Kristi loves it to death. The 8.0 is ideal for smaller kids couldnt recommend it highly enough.
Starby 7.2
It was extremely stable for Nikita in the surf but had a tendancy to buck her off getting over waves due to the huge volume. Niki found it very hard to turn the board on the wave as she did not have enough weight to sink the tail.
The Starboard 7.2 has enough float for me at 105kg to paddle it in flat water. Matt Lumley was easily able to do helicopters on this board in 6 inch ripples at Cosey Corner.
It was great fun to use as a big boys short board and prone surfer really well, we had enourmous fun with it.
Laceys Lane converted this board to a quad and rode it very successfully in hollow beach breaks on the gold coast.
