I paddled a med for about a year. It is a realy forgiving hull so you wont find yourself upsidedown every five minutes, great for you as a beginer. Despite this it is still fairly loose, I used to pull of 540 cleans no worries. My complaints are the nose had a bad habit of burrying itself when on a wave and the foot pegs realy suck, so try and get one that someone has made a foam bulk head for.