The VIP said..
I surfed (very poorly) a minimal for a few years before I had a benign brain tumour and lost most of my sight. Then proceeded to get fat and really unfit but kept looking for a way to get myself going again. Just wanted to get a surfing life back. Tried lots of different things but kept getting hurt or sick til I found a tricycle. Best thing ever... started riding to the shops for lunch everyday then a bit further and further. tweaked the diet (still a work in progress) and the weight started coming off. After about a year and a half of this took the first step back into the ocean on my old minimal on a tiny/flat day at Noosa. That must have been a sight for the people on the rocks watching this fat guy with dark glasses and a helmet crawling across the rocks to get to ocean. Almost got to my feet that day, but knew how far i'd fallen. The 2 things I found out that day were that I needed to get used to the light and the motion of the ocean again. This was November 08. Went and bought a boogie board and spent summer and til easter riding it between the flags at home(Peregian). Took the winter off from riding the booger but still rode the trike to keep the fitness going. Start of spring started going to the pool and swimming laps to bump the fitness up a notch or 2. Mid November my brother said he was paddling his mal to get fit so I got in on that. We were paddling at Noosa and kept seeing these SUPs, said i'd like to try one to see if I could do it so mid December 2009 went to the local SUP school (SUP NOOSA) What a day.. I could stand and paddle on 1 side but fell off when trying to change sides BUT I'm up and going, it's like stepping on the fast forward button of getting my surfing life back- one of the best days in a looooooong time! Went to a demo day a few days later tried heaps of boards and found the one to start on, an 11 foot Nsp. Started riding Monday to Friday, mostly flat water but out in the bay when we could. Then on February 5 2010 got my first wave!!! Just fluked onto it,concentrating so hard I didn't even realise til I went past my brother and he was cheering. That was the start of what has mostly been a great ride. Had a few detours over the journey, a change in my brothers life mid 2014 meant he couldn't bring my board anymore so I went to riding a softboard til the bus drivers put a stop to that ( too long) then got a midlength( 8 foot max on bus) and things changed again winter 2018 ...back on the sup fulltime rest of 2018 til a bad wipeout late that year(nerve damage to my shoulder) combined with some personnel issues wiped out most of 2019. But thanks to seabreeze classifieds I bought a 2 piece sup I can get on the bus WOOHOO. Only used it a few times til this covid stuff so I;m just waiting it out so I can restart yet again.

Nofear4 said..
Most board reviews are written by tallish males 80-100gs in weight. I'm female, 5'3' and weigh 50kgs. There is a shortage of information for someone my size to read about regarding potential boards that I will 'grow into' as my proficiency improves. I love my 9'5" x 32 156L sup but my height makes it very difficult putting it on the car roof independently and I don't think I'll ever be able to reach the kick board on a wave as my legs are pretty short. Any suggestions other than practice, practice, practice?