Is it easier or harder to catch wave using a boogie board compared with longboards/shortboards? Can a beginner have fun with a shortboard using it as body-board/boggie-board w/o trying to stand?

l dont like body boarding enless its shorebreak. l think it harder to catch waves, and its easier. sometines on small days all use my short board as a body board

surfboards have more float to them and usually paddle faster (unless you are wearing fins on your feet w/ the bodyboard) so you can get onto a wave easier, but the popup is an extra challenge with surfing.
in waves with a little bit more juice some kids on bodyboards are surfing drop-knee or fully standing up, which is harder than on a surfboard bc its less stable.

Boogieboards are easier to learn the fundamentals of surfing and are a lot easier to catch waves if you have swim fins. l would not use a surfboard to boogieboard if possible. Surfboards do not work very well when lying on them and you increase the risk of injury to you and the board a thousand times. Stick with a booger board.

If u r good, & r wearing fins, u can catch a wave easier on a boogie board, & get into & stay in critical parts of the wave better than on a surfboard. But, surfboards r designed to maneuver more quickly on the face of a wave & they r more responsive to slight weight shifts. Lying down on a shortboard deprives of of that weight/balance sensitivity. It is really hard to maneuver a normal surfboard while u r lying prone on it, because ur weight can only be shifted side to side, but not front to back.

yeah just catch the soup a few times first as if you're bodyboarding. then when you have the feel for that do a pop up and ride the soup straight off. then when you're comfortable with that ride the waves straight off..then start angling on the wave