I started when I was 37. It wasn't too hard to get into but I had the luxury to do it every day. I think it would be a lot more difficult if I could only do it

I started when I was 37. It wasn't too hard to get into but I had the luxury to do it every day. I think it would be a lot more difficult if I could only do it on weekends though. One of my biggest problems was pearling (where the front of the board dives below the water while catching a wave). I once hurt myself pretty badly when white catching a wave the board got in front of me and got stuck underwater in the sand. The wave then threw me into the board and I bruised my leg really badly, almost to the point of breaking it. After many more incidents like this where I slammed into the board, I became quite gun shy. I eventually tried out a short board and all these problems went away. So if I were you, and had enough time to commit, I'd go against conventional wisdom and just get a short board. It'll be harder to catch waves but you'll end up more confident in the end.