The single most common wrong decision on an Aljezur surf trip is renting the wrong board. Not because people are careless — because most rental shops let you pick a board by name, and most names mean nothing to someone who hasn't shopped for boards before. "6'6 shortboard" tells you nothing if you don't already know what a 6'6 shortboard feels like under your feet compared to a 7'8 funboard on a shoulder-high summer day at Amado.
This is a guide to picking the right board for your situation. It's also a pitch for letting us do it for you, because we have a calculator on our homepage that asks you three questions and matches you to the right shape — and that calculator plus a human eye over the result is worth more than any generic "beginners need a longboard" advice on the internet.
The three inputs that actually matter
Experience level. Not what you did on your one lesson in Cornwall three years ago. What you'd honestly do on a shoulder-high day tomorrow at Praia da Arrifana. Rate yourself with the shortest possible descriptor:
- First-timer — never surfed, or surfed only in the whitewater. You want maximum stability and paddle power.
- Improver — you can catch unbroken waves in small conditions, stand up more often than not, and manage a bottom turn.
- Intermediate — you're carving on the wave face, reading which peak to sit at, comfortable up to head-high.
- Advanced — you know what board you want. Skip to /surf-gear.
Weight and height. A 60 kg surfer needs a very different board from a 90 kg surfer on the same wave. Every board has a volume rating (in litres). Beginners want more litres per kilo; advanced surfers want less. This is why any recommendation that doesn't ask your weight is guessing.
When you're surfing. Peak summer at Amado is small, mushy, forgiving. Peak winter at Bordeira is big, powerful, punishing. The same person needs different boards for different weeks. If you're coming in September–October (our shoulder), most intermediates are fine on the same board they'd use in summer. If you're coming in January, we might steer you a shape up.
The four shapes we rent, matched to level
8'6 Longboard — Beginners, absolute first-timers, larger-framed adults learning. Maximum stability, easiest paddling, easiest to catch waves. Slow to turn but that's fine, you're not turning yet. Also a great rental for experienced longboarders who want a stable travel board for cruising Amoreira or Amado on knee-to-waist days. Ideal weight range: any.
7'8 Funboard — The workhorse. Improvers and light-framed intermediates. Enough foam under the chest to paddle well, enough length to catch waves easily, enough turn radius that you can start carving. If you can catch and ride broken waves and want to move to the unbroken face, this is probably your board. Ideal weight range: 60–90 kg.
7'0 Funboard — Intermediates and heavier-framed improvers. Faster, more responsive, less stable. If you can already turn on a longer board and want to feel the wave face more, step here. Not for total beginners — you'll spend the trip wobbling. Ideal weight range: 65–95 kg.
6'6 Shortboard (softtop) — Intermediate-plus surfers only. Fast, tight-turning, requires paddle strength and wave-catching timing. A shortboard on a slow summer day at Amado is a bad time; save it for punchy days at Arrifana or Bordeira. Ideal weight range: 60–85 kg.
Why we don't publish "the beginner board"
Most rental fleets advertise "the beginner board" — one shape they push at anyone who says "I'm a beginner." That's fine if you're 65 kg, average height, and starting from zero on a small summer day. It fails if you're 95 kg (that board is too small), 55 kg (that board is too big), or already know how to catch broken waves (you'll be bored on day two).
The fleet-based approach — you pick, we hand it over — puts the burden of gear knowledge on the customer. The person-based approach — you tell us who you are and where you're going, we pick — puts the burden on us. We prefer the second because we do this all day and you're on holiday.
Our calculator does the work
On the homepage, scroll to the Find your perfect setup card. Answer:
- Your experience level
- Your sex (informs typical strength/weight assumptions)
- Your weight in kg
- Your height in cm
That gets you an instant board + wetsuit thickness recommendation. It's not a marketing gadget — it applies the same rule set we use when we manually match a booking. If you use it and then click through to the contact form, the recommendation is pre-filled and we'll confirm within 24 hours whether it holds for your specific dates and spot.
Every recommendation gets a human check from us before delivery. We look at the season, the current forecast, the specific spot you're staying near, and whether the numbers suggest anything unusual (you're at the edge of a weight bracket, you're a heavier beginner who really needs the 8'6, you're an intermediate who's underrating themselves). A calculator can catch 80% of misjudgements. A person who lives here catches the other 20%.
The level-match guarantee
Even with our calculator and a human check, we get boards wrong sometimes. First day out, the board doesn't feel right. Too big, too small, wrong shape for the conditions you actually met. You message us on WhatsApp. On the next delivery run — usually the same day or the next morning — we bring a replacement. No fee, no argument. If we chose wrong, we fix wrong.
This is unusual. Most rental businesses that hand you a board consider the transaction closed. We consider it closed when you've had a good week of surfing.
After the calculator: what happens
You get a recommendation, click through, and we confirm within 24 hours. We ask you where you're staying, what your surf goal for the trip is, and whether you have any preferences we should override the calculator on. If you have specific board preferences (a particular volume, a specific tail shape) tell us — we'll match as close as we can.
Payment is a secure link (card, Apple Pay, iDEAL, Wero, MB WAY) after we confirm gear and dates. Or cash on delivery if you'd rather. No deposit. No card details required to hold the booking.
Then we drop the gear at your Airbnb the evening before you start surfing, with a quick text on where the boards are stashed. We pick them up the morning of your checkout. In between, you surf.
If we picked wrong, we swap. Free.