l have a 6'3 shortboard being shipped to me and l was wondering how big a wave has to be to ride it? 1foot? 2foot? 5 foot?

you can ride any wave..be a beast and jump on a 30 footer in a hurricane

knee high mush. i've been doing it for years.

Anything bigger than about 4 foot otherwise jump on a longboard. Have fun with your new board!!

The Surfboard Man
http://thesurfboardman.com/

Depending on how good you are, and whether the wave generates enough energy, it can be pretty small. Just you are very limited what you can do on it. l have seen a couple contests in knee high junk, and a really good surfer can make the most of it.

Personally, that is when l pull out the longboard.

like one foot if you good and can get speed from it.

half a foot probably, it really just matters what your strengths are and what your good at. its also about how you time the wave and when you start going towards it. if its a 1-2 foot wave and you wait for the last second to try to catch it then you wont catch it. if you start paddelng right when you see the wave it wont be as hard.

l can surf my shortboard on 2ft days and still have fun of course it is alot more fun when the waves are bigger but it is still rideable.