Whoa, double post - sorry.
But could someone explain to me the hate on mid-lengths? I see it all over and it makes me self-conscious riding my 7'4". As a skater I'm anxious to ride a shorter board so I can surf more the way I skate but I just haven't had the time (and the waves here don't have the consistency) yet to get to that point. But I don't know where the hate originated or exactly why? I don't care when someone at the skatepark is riding a shaped board, but I gather that's not an apt comparison, wondering if someone more legit than me can tell me why I'm a kook...?
Midlengths used to be a 'kooky' no mans land between longboards and shortboards, generally associated with adult beginners. But let's be clear in the lates 60s and 70s, the transition era into modern surfing, most progressive surfers were using them.
I learned on shortboards and have a love/ hate relationship with long boarding. when I started you either rode a longbaord or a highly rockered out, skinny shortboard (ala Kelly Slaters 'glass slipper). With the advent of the Litmus and Thomas Campbell movies in the early 2000s, surfers gradually started to open up to 'alternative' surfboards again. People began riding Fish, quads, bonzers, eggs etc... usually with a lot more volume than contemporary shortboards. A lot of people realized 'foam is typically your friend.' And for most of us most of the time volume only helped.
Anyway, it was inevitable that shapers and surfers began to explore 'mid lengths' in this anything goes era. Also, there are a shit load more 'adult learners than there used to be and they make a lot of sense for that crowd. There are also a lot of fancy 'designer' surf labels that look appealing to adult learners with expendable income making middies. So, there are a lot of kooks on middies, for sure.
Personally, I caved. out of my seven surfboards, two are middies. They've helped my up wave count a lot in winter when I'm wearing a lot of neoprene, surfing bigger waves and not as surf fit. In saying that, I only like them in bigger opened faced waves (not necessarily hollow critical waves). I really don't like them in anything under shoulder high. To make the most of a middie you really want some room to move them around and hack some turns... otherwise I find them pretty boring and lackluster.
There are so many ways to pack volume into a surfboard, the mid length is just one. The closest I have come to skateboard feeling is on small sub 6' wide tailed quads. If you are surfing smaller waves, you're pretty fit and want to get a skateboard sensation consider a quad fish or stubby shortboard. Catching waves and the take off will be harder than on your 7'4" but once you up and running you'll have a very different surf experience. Keep the middie for should high plus and long open walls.