duder227right now i ride a soft top longboard on usually waist high (chest/shoulder high after a big storm) waves on long beach island in NJ. only get to surf here 2 weeks out of the year and have been riding this board for the last 5 or so. any tips on what kind of board i should get as the next step up? like length, whether i should stick with a soft top or not, etc. I want something a little more maneuverable
You have many, many options. First off, height, weight? Do you want to go shorter than you're at? Maneuverability is not only linked to length, although length is obviously a pretty large contributor. Softies suffer from having very thick rails and a thick-all-over volume distribution, which hurts turning capability.
I surf Nj all year round. So without knowing anything about you, here's my opinion. Keep the softie for when it's tiny. Get something along the lines of a lost puddle jumper or RV, the CI average joe or pod mod, or the firewire sweet potato or baked potato. You'll have to talk a bit more about your skill and stats to determine a length. These kinds of boards are very accessible to all skill levels though, with properly varying length. They catch waves easy. They're fast and short with more normal volume distributions, so they're maneuverable. They can handle most conditions. I love my 5'4"x20.5 in head high surf. I take it out in the winter often. It's super fast and it flows, but I can also surf it aggressively. These kinds of short, stubby boards have come a long way. They're highly applicable to NJ summers.They're easy and fun to surf, but can still be surfed at a high level.
The downsides of these are, obviously, the exceptional width. It's not a huge disadvantage though. People who hate on these are often of the "pro level shortboard with monster sticker on it or I'm not surfing it" variety. They're not what Mick or Kelly's riding, but none of us are Mick or Kelly. Will it surf like a 5'10"x18.25 potato chip? No. But those are useless most of the time.
You will, obviously, also not be able to surf when it's longboard only territory. But that's what the softie is for. It's like having a two ski quiver. You have pow skis for specialty use, then sort of wide park skis that can do everything. The softie handles super small stuff, while your short, wide and stubby board will do pretty much everything else. Obviously there are more ideal crafts for certain wave types, but how often is it huge, fast and barreling here? And honestly, with big fins and some confidence it's doable. for surfing two weeks a year it's a very ideal quiver.
There's many other options, and if you don't want a midlength or longboard then there's so much available too. Surfboards are harder to pick than skis.