Sorry, I haven't searched the posts for two weeks and I overlooked this one last time I was browsing.
What else do people "need" two of?
A surfboard for small waves and a different surfboard for bigger waves!
Nords,
How many boards do you have and how many could you justify? When living in San Diego, I had 2 boards (short board for most days and a bigger board for occasional days). I could probably also justify a long board if I was into it, but I wasn't.
I'm storing my daughter's custom 7'9" (her high-school graduation present).
I own a 10-year-old 9'0" beater (factory second), a 10'0" Bill Stewart Hydrohull longboard, and a 10'0" Cippy Cabato longboard. I recently sold a 10'0" Trident epoxy because I was maxed out on storage and the other two 10'0"s are better. Among those three boards I can handle anything up to 20 feet. Well, at least the boards can handle the waves.
Anything beyond one board is overkill, especially if that one board is a longboard. My rationalization is that I occasionally give group lessons to 2-3 people, and it's more convenient to have the boards on hand. If I encountered a group larger than that then I'd go shopping on Craigslist and then cull the herd again afterward.
In the next 2-3 years I'm going to buy a stand-up paddleboard, but I haven't run out of challenging waves yet...