help with a new board

hi all!
im looking to get a small-medium wave shortboard.possibly along the lines of a fish.at the moment i surf a longboard and 6'8 shortboard with a lot of volume.the shortboard is ok for catching and just riding waves but its slow and difficult to turn.so im lookin for something faster and better for doing manoeuvres.

im 6'3 and 80 kilos. not too sure on the dimensions i should be looking for. but i was thinkin around 6'4, 19' 1/2, 2' 1/4 roughly. do u reckon i could/should go shorter?
all suggestions welcome,thanks.

If you can paddle and catch waves easily on the 6'8" and you can't throw a few turns in

then either

(1) The board( and or fins) is crap

or

(2) your surfing needs work.

At your size a 6'8" should be easy to turns on given reasonable waves.

If the board is a POS than that's easy to solve.

Sometimes changing boards is not the answer though.

If the board is ok then get someone to video you surfing and critically analyse it or maybe get help from Ben's surf clinic.

see if you can borrow somebody's shortboard. that will give you an idea of what you want or put you in the right direction

a 6'8" for such a big guy should be plenty small really unless its got huge volume, I'm 5'10" or so and my 6'2" is more than small enough for me

i think it could be a combination of both the 1.board and 2.i need work.
borrowing a friends board is a good idea i'll give that a go next time im out.
the board is getting quite old which is why im looking into getting a new one.so it is fine at the moment, i was just wondering if a different type of board could be better.

and as for a quad.its definitely a possibility

thanks for the help lads

i'm a similar height to you but a bit heavier (only a bit mind

) and the shortest shortboard i've had in the last few years is a 6'8". no hassle throwing it around. its all about technique more than anything else, i have a 9'1" and its surfs real loose nice to throw around.

as was said above borrow a board and have a good long look at bottoms and tails

oh yeah and fin setup too

i'm 6'0 and around 95kgs (15 1/2st). the smallest i've gone is 6'2x19 1/4x 2 1/2 and frankly it was too small. i sat on it and the water was up to my armpits!

if you're looking at around the dimensions above, maybe up the thickness a bit (i assume thasy're more shortboard than fish).