Best inexpensive skim style board for 6' 2"/200 lbs

Well, I broke my hand on Thursday in an incident completely unrelated to boarding. I've never been a big fan of wake surfing but looks like that's all I'm gonna be able to do for the next 6 weeks or so.

My current skill level is that I can get up with a rope and toss it or drop in from the platform and ride pretty much indefinitely but have not really tried any tricks as my board is a real surf style (As in an ocean surf board). The board seems to track way too well for any funny business on a boat wave. I've ridden a Slingshot and Hyperlite board too and neither seemed any faster or looser than my current board. I've ridden a 56" Byerly Hazard briefly and, although the board was quite small for me it seemed a lot more fun than what I've been riding.

So, I want a skim surf board to hopefully have a bit more fun with surfing. As I'm not that enthusiastic about it I'm not going to drop $500-800+ on a surf board. I'd like to spend nothing and certainly can't spend more than $300ish. What options are out there that would be suitable for my size and budget?

Would a used 54" XXX be too small for me?

How are these Surf Glide (Maybe Mica brand?) and Surf 321 boards that I'm seeing on ebay? Those boards can be had for around $220 shipped new. All that I see on ebay are only 52" though and don't have traction matts on them.

And before anybody mentions it there are no shops that offer demos around me and I don't know anyone with this style of board to play on. I'm pretty much stuck with taking the collective word of the internet and making a purchase decision.

I would look very hard at this board if I was in your shoes. The XL in particular.

http://wakestore.victoriaskimboards....om-factor-pcx/

Mica is a brand out of Portugal. They are a small surf company.

I believe these surf glide or surf 321 boards are your basic skim board produced in china. When I say skim board, I mean skim board. These are not designed for wake skimming, they are being promoted that way, but they are not wake skims. I don't even think they come with fins or fin holes/fin box. But go ahead and get one, and tell us what you think. In fact if you decide to buy one, I can install a fin box for you and set you up with traction and fins, just have it shipped direct to me.

Based on the profile a 52" should work for you, but it is possible you might find it a little small, depending on your wake.

Nick

I would second Fence Sence. I would look at Victoria Skim. I have a hard time following their customizer, from a manufacturing standpoint. I would normally tell you to go look at Cal Marine website or one of Victoria's other dealers to purchase one, but it seems like the customizer is a much better deal. I suspect they may be moving away from dealers in the future.

Nick

Those Victoria boards seem pretty cool. A little more than I'd like to spend but not too much extra. They offer them in 55" too which is probably appropriate for me.

Yeah, on the Surf123/Mica boards the seller had "wakesurf" in the titles of all of the auctions. I realized later that none had fins and that they were mislabeled as "wakesurf" boards. They were indeed just high end skim boards.

I looked into those Surf321s and similar on ebay. I say similar because they are all the exact same boards with a different name. There is nothing but bad reviews on them and people saying to steer clear. All the reviews I found were from ocean surfers, because they are in fact ocean skim boards, not wakesurfing skim boards. They are mainly sold as colored blanks with no traction, fins, etc. A few of them I have seen did have traction and fins on them, but they were the same boards for about $100 more.

That is a pretty good price on that Victoria. I haven't ridden one yet, but hear they are supposed to be very good.

Also that Byerly Hazard is a blast to ride. You can do a lot on that board, including spins and airs.
Also the size of the board isn't the key to if it will work for you, it has to do with how fast the board is and how much lift your wave has in relation to your size. There are bigger boards out there that are slower than smaller boards. In that case, a smaller board would work better.

Victoria is in the process of expanding our presence in shops.
Being able to make a custom board and have it within 2-3 weeks is awesome, but a lot of people want a board right away. Victoria doesn't stock any boards at the factory, but our dealers do.
I was at California marine sports last week and they have a really good selection of our line up. They aren't on their website, but you can call them and they ship for free.

The Factor would be a great shape for you. It is easy to ride, but has a ton of performance when you're ready for it.
At 200 lbs, the large would work well, but if you aren't confident in your wake the XL will work for sure. The XL can be hard to slow down if you're too small for it though these boards move.

Had I not come across my current board, I'd be riding a Vic right now.

Originally Posted by fence_sence

I would look very hard at this board if I was in your shoes. The XL in particular.

http://wakestore.victoriaskimboards....om-factor-pcx/

Well, I decided earlier in the week to stretch my budget a little bit and get this Factor PCX custom which was $365 + $15.60 shipping. I tried to order it several times but kept getting an error about my shipping address being wrong when submitting the order. I contacted them and wakemitch and apparently that was a pricing error. It was supposed to be $605 which is the new price on the website. Insert sad trombone sound here

I'm just not interested enough in surfing to spend $500-600 on a board. Does anyone have any other suggestions?

How about a 2012 Triple X 54" Composite Pro? Am I too big? It's within my budget but only the 54" is available which says " For Riders Up To 190lbs". I might actually be at 190 lbs in the next couple of months if my diet/exercise continues as it has been going.

Originally Posted by Jeff

How about a 2012 Triple X 54" Composite Pro? Am I too big? It's within my budget but only the 54" is available which says " For Riders Up To 190lbs". I might actually be at 190 lbs in the next couple of months if my diet/exercise continues as it has been going.

You could always buy Surf Addict's board. it's a Wavezone skim style board. It's light and even fits in a wakeboard rack, so doesn't need the thicker forks...

I weigh 170 and I was able to easily freeride it behind my sacked out direct drive. I know he'd sell it to ya cheap.

I tried it with a slightly larger fin and liked it better that way. He preferred it with the little skim fin because it let him spin easier.