The obvious - and wrong - answer: the length of the board.

The correct answer: the wheelbase.

The wheelbase determines how the board is going to react under your feet - tighter, whippier turns vs longer, more drawn out arcs with more stability. When you're talking about surfskate size, this is what you should focus on.

Compare the Carver Omni to the Carver Black Tip, for example. Both 32" long, but...

• Omni wheelbase: 15.625"
• Black Tip wheelbase: 17.5"

Then consider the Carver RNF. At 29.5" it's one of the smallest surfskates available...

• RNF wheelbase: 16": Bigger than that of the 32" Omni!

This is also highlighted with the YOW boards - consider the Pyzel Shadow vs the Pyzel Ghost. Same length (33.5") but with wheelbases of 17" and 20" respectively.

They'll feel completely different to ride - so our advice is to place to more importance on the wheelbase than the length of the surfskate itself.

Your height and weight don't really matter.

Your stance, however, will have an impact and this is usually determined by your shoulder width rather than your height... but also by simply what feels comfortable to you.

Those with snowboard or surf experience will be used to having a wider stance - so go for something bigger than you first think. Equally, it takes a lot more power to throw a surf or snowboard around than it does a surfskate - and a bigger surfskate will handle your power a lot better than a smaller one.

It's also not as simple as measuring a comfortable stance and seeing which boards might fit! Your front foot should be roughly just behind the front truck - but what of the back foot?

I like to sit mine just inside the back wheels - I feel I have more control over the transition between gripping and slipping like this, and can feather the back wheels out with precision.

However, the tail pocket is a comfortable place for a back foot, and will be behind the back wheels... and some people like to have their foot right on the tail itself. This will again depend on where you're riding and how you're riding.

Your best bet is to have a go on a few boards. We have plenty of demo boards here at Vandem, and we know a few places you can try them elsewhere if you're not near Bristol. Hit us up.

A shorter wheelbase (up to ~16") will be more reactive to carve around bowls and transitions than a longer one, which will often be found on boards up to ~30" long.

If you're getting more technical in the skatepark - doing airs, grinding coping - then you'll want a nose on your board for extra control. This will make the board longer (check out the Carver Streetsurf Series - all around 32") without increasing the wheelbase.

If you're dropping in and doing tricks, there will become a time where you will be better served by a skateboard, rather than a surfskate.

Our honest take is that surfskates aren't ideal for the pumptrack.

Yes, they're great for pumping. But that's pumping on a horizontal plane - side to side. In a pumptrack, you're pumping vertically up and down. The crazy lean and turn of a surfskate can be too much for the speed you gain in the pumptrack where you don't actually need much turn to get around the banks.

However, anything is possible and though we wouldn't necessarily grab a surfskate for a pumptrack session ourselves, we have seen plenty of people handle it with ease.

We'd recommend a longer wheelbase (~16"+) for the stability at speed, which you will certainly gain in a pumptrack as your confidence grows.

A dose of honesty is helpful here. You don't have to tell us the answers... but how is your surfing?

How much time in the ocean do you spend doing turns vs paddling around and scratching for waves?

If you really want to improve your surfing... go surfing. Move to the ocean, surf 8x a week for the next 10 years, and you'll get what you want.

And land-based training? Join a swimming club. Play octopush. Go running. Improve your lung capacity. Skate miniramp or bowl. Watch Trilogy on repeat!

But if you still want a surfskate...

We see a lot of shorter boards marketed at surfers - those that can whip the tightest turns possible. And whilst there may be some cross-training potential there in terms of drawing speed out of turns, we feel that potential is fairly limited.

A surfboard turns from your back foot. A surfskate turns from the front. Straight away this should tell you that it will never be a perfect cross trainer.

Our advice? Don't go for that teeny one that can turn super tight. It might be able to turn around on a dime in a car park, but it won't be much fun to nip to the shops.

And the best surf training is to simply spend as many hours on a board - any board - as possible.

A longer surfskate will handle your wider surf stance, it'll handle the power you want to put into your turns, and it'll offer more stability and versatility as a board on the whole. Give it a few years and you might just notice the benefits in the water.