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Choosing A Good Beginner Wakesurf Board (2023)

Depending on your experience, buying a wakesurf board for yourself may not be an easy task.

If you have no idea how things like the dimensions of the board or what materials go into the design affect the performance of the board, then you may find that you have a tough time picking a good quality board out.

In order to help make this task easier for you we have broken down the various factors that can affect the performance of a wakesurfing board so that you can make a more informative and an overall better purchase.

Best Wakesurf Boards for Beginners

PHOTO BOARD NOTES  
Editor’s Pick
Connelly Ride Wakesurf Board

 

Editor’s Pick
Connelly Ride Wakesurf Board
  •   Overall Best Beginner’s Wakesurf Board For The Money
  •   Features three 1.75″ tail fins that can be removed for a looser, more customized feel as your skills improve
  •   Wide, buoyant, and stable thanks to double edge rails
Best Price at evo
Luxury Pick
Liquid Force Primo LTD Wakesurf Board 2022

 

Luxury Pick
Liquid Force Primo LTD Wakesurf Board 2022
  •   The Primo LTD features removable footstraps for beginners to lock in and feel what it’s like to surf a high-end board.
  •   With a squash tail, rippers like you can initiate sharp turns with plenty of pop, while the back channels provide you solid hold through the pocket.
  •   The adjustable fin setup lets you rock a single fin for skimming or the twins for surfing.
Best Price at evo
Best Kids Wakesurf Board
Connelly Dash Wakesurf Board - Big Boys 2021

 

Best Kids Wakesurf Board
Connelly Dash Wakesurf Board – Big Boys’ 2021
  •   Small and lightweight, it is easy for the young ones to get up on and maneuver
  •   Features 3 skater tail fins and a skim design
  •   Features support from a soft topside EVA pad for a surface easy on your feet
Best Price at evo
Also Recommended
Liquid Force Rocket Wakesurf Board

 

Also Recommended
Liquid Force Rocket Wakesurf Board
  •   Compression Molded Design for Maximum Durability
  •   A capable all rounder that’ll please newbies and veterans alike
  •   Ride as a twin for a surfy feel or as a thruster when you want to keep your foot on the gas and drive.
Best Price at evo
Also Recommended
Hyperlite Speedster Wakesurf Board

 

Also Recommended
Hyperlite Speedster Wakesurf Board
  •   Beginner-friendly board packed with pro-level features.
  •   The wide platform is stable and fast for riders of all levels
  •   The high-end fin setup uses two surf-style fin and one smaller fish fin in the back, so you can customize the feel for loose and playful with one fin, or fast and stable with three.
Best Price at evo

What To Consider Before Buying

In order to help you make the best decision on a good wakesurfer board, we’ve compiled a brief guide on what you should look for when you’re looking for a new board.

After reading this, you should be able to find the best wakesurf board for the money that meets your skill level and budget.

Tail

Depending on the board that you are looking at, one thing you will notice is that the tail may be shaped differently than some of the other types of boards on the market.

There are all sorts of different tail shapes available and some are meant to be able to be used in different conditions more than other ones are which is important to keep in mind.

Generally speaking there are about eight different types of tails available on the market and in order to give you a grasp as to what each tail is all about we broke down each of the main options below:

Pin Tail

This type of tail is about the narrowest of all of the types of tails on the market.

Since this tail is quite small it sinks further into the water than a lot of the boards on the market meaning that you certainly get a lot of grip while surfing, but it can make it harder to be able to ride smaller waves properly.

Square Tail

This type of tail allows the board to float better on the water largely due to the larger surface of the board itself.

You won’t get as much traction on the water when you are riding this board, but it does allow you to be able to pick up speed pretty fast.

Swallow Tail

This type of tail is basically a combination of a square tail and a pin tail. 

These types of tails are capable of holding their speed and are quite easy to control as well.

If you don’t live in an area with big waves then this is generally the type of tail that most people go for under that circumstance.

Squash Tail

Most of the wakeboards that you encounter in the marketplace will have this type of tail shape.

This tail shape is built to be good at high speeds, but it is also capable of some pretty good performance when the conditions are less than optimal which is why it is such a popular choice.

Round Tail

This type of tail is ideal if you want to get yourself an average board that works in a variety of conditions.

This type of board offers comparable control to that of a pin tail board, but it has more surface area which helps with things like turns and simple tricks.

Diamond Tail

Another fairly popular type of tail; it is kind of a combination of a pin tail design as well as a squash tail design. 

This type of board allows the user to have some pretty good maneuverability all the while still being able to maintain a relatively fast speed.

Half Moon Tail

This is definitely one of the least common designs on the market.

The design is built so that there isn’t much area of the board that is behind the fins.

This feature allows the user to be able to turn with ease and helps out maneuverability no matter the size of the wave you are attempting to surf.

Bat Tail

Another type of board that isn’t used a lot is the bat tail board.

This board has a fairly wide tail allowing it to be pretty stable on the water.

The design also contains fairly sharp corners which allow the board to be able to dig into the water easier resulting in the ability to be able to maneuver the board around fairly easily.

guy wakesurfing

Rail

The rail of a board is one of the most important aspects of a board as it helps to allow or disallow water from flowing down the board.

A thin rail on a board will allow the board to be able to travel at a faster rate of speed as the water won’t be slowed down as much from the rail.

If you have a thicker rail you will generally have more grip on the board and you will feel much more stable when riding.

There are generally about three types of rails that you will find on the marketplace, each of them serving their own purpose and appealing to a different type of rider.

Full Rail:

This type of rail is going to allow you to be able to have the smoothest possible ride of all of the three rail types.

This rail will make it rather hard for you to be able to catch an edge and flip the board or lose your balance while on the water.

The one thing to keep in mind about this type of board is that generally you won’t be able to turn quite as sharply with it.

Hard Rail:

If you are looking for a board that makes it easy to sharp turns then this could be the type of rail that you may want to look for.

This rail allows the user to be able to turn faster in the water, but it does pose a higher risk of losing an edge or losing your balance.

Blended Rail:

If you want something down the middle between a hard rail and a full rail then a blended rail is what you should look for.

This type of rail will allow the user to be able to turn relatively sharply and it will still allow the user to have good balance on the water.

This type of rail is generally fairly difficult to catch an edge and lose your balance on, however, it is easier to do it on this type of rail than that of a full rail design which is something to keep in mind.

Rocker

The rocker of the board is essentially the amount that a board is curved when you set it down on top of a flat surface.

Depending on the curve of the board, the rocker will have various kinds of effects on the overall performance of the board.

If the board doesn’t have a lot of rocker in it then it will sit higher up on the water which will generally make it a bit easier for the rider to be able to travel at faster speeds.

If the board has a heavier rocker built into its design it will sit lower down in the water and will therefore make it easier to be able to turn the board while sacrificing a bit of speed.

Fins

If you don’t know too much about wakesurf boards then the fins on them may come as a surprise to you.

These boards come in anywhere from a single fin design to as much as  a five fin design according to the wants and needs of the rider.

If you choose to go for a single fin design then it acts much like a rudder does.

A single fin will help you to be able to better maneuver the board and will help with stability as well.

One thing to note about a single fin is that it doesn’t allow the rider to be able to create their own speed and you have to get a board with more fins in order for that to become possible.

A two fin is mostly meant to be used in smaller waves and offers the rider the ability to have great stability and control of the unit.

A three fin design is generally the most popular as the outside fins on the unit help you to be able to travel faster and the center fin in the design helps to keep you stable.

A three fin design can be used in pretty much any kind of water conditions which is also why it is such a popular choice.

The four fin design is built to be able to allow the rider to travel as fast as possible.

This type of board does really well in large waves and still doesn’t lack too much in the way of control.

The five fin board will slow down your board, but it will offer you pretty good balance and control.

Most of the boards that have a fair amount of fins in the design offer adjustability and allow you to remove fins in order to suit your preferences which is ideal so that you can match the conditions in the area that you are wakeboard surfing in.

Type of Board

Generally speaking there are three different types of wakesurf boards that are available on the market.

There are skim boards, surf as well as hybrid boards available.

A skim board is generally the most popular type of board for doing things like spins and tricks on.

These boards are among the most difficult to ride and are recommended to be used by experienced riders only.

A surf wakeboard provides the easiest board for a beginner to learn on.

These boards are fast, have good maneuverability and can easily be used by advanced riders as well.

The hybrid boards allow you to be able to do some tricks, but also aren’t super hard for beginners to learn on as they offer a balance of speed, as well as control.

Manufacturer

One thing that is important to realize when you are buying a wakesurf board is that not all manufacturers are going to create the same kind of quality in a board.

Before you go ahead and purchase one of the last things that you should do is to look up the manufacturer in order to make sure that they actually make quality products.

It may also be a good idea to check and see how many years they have been in the business for as this will have allowed them to be able to adapt their product design over the years in order to be able to adapt properly to the marketplace.

If you are really unsure as to whether your manufacturer is trustworthy or not you can also take a look at and read through warranty clauses in order to see if they have a consumer friendly warranty or whether it looks as though they are just trying to rip off the customer.

Another thing you can do is get in touch with the manufacturer and ask them some questions.

This can give you a good indication as to how helpful their customer service team is and it can also help to give you a good indication as to the quality of the service that they provide.

Conclusion

Hopefully after reading this article you now feel as though you have a better grasp on the things that you should look for in a wakesurf board in order to get one that is of a high quality.

Remember it is always a good idea to check out the return policy on the unit that you are thinking of purchasing so that you can have some peace of mind with your decision, knowing that the manufacturer or at least the company that you are purchasing the product from, has your back.

Always remember that if you are unsure as to what type of a tail you want or if you are still unsure about fins or rails, then posting on places like forums and in comment areas for products, you can get the details you need in order to make a better purchase for yourself.

Best of luck in your search and hope that you can find yourself an awesome board that works for your body type and something that matches your level of experience as well.

image: DepositPhotos