Recommendations on creating a public database? Basic social networking script recommendations?

Greetings,

I'm a bit of a newbie to IM, but am a quick learner for website design.

Simply, I want to create a database of sorts, but am unsure of where to go from here.

I don't want to give away my niche, so I'll relate it to something else.

Imagine the niche of snowboarding. I want the enthusiast to register, and then be asked for a picture of themselves, and then asked to upload a picture of their gear, and then allow them to leave detailed descriptions of their gear (people love to brag).

Also, I want them to be able to select from a list where they snowboard at .. (from a drop down menu, with pre-determined locations I've entered, and option for 'Other' if they snowboard at a place I haven't listed)

And then I want other users (like myspace-fashion) to be able to search for other users, either by location, by gear used, or etc.

What I want ultimately, is to create a database of enthusiasts, documenting where they practice their hobby, and what gear they are using, and make it searchable by the public. So the enthusiast could find other enthusiasts, and possibly carpool, or make new friends.

Would it be best to find a social-networking script and tweak it? I know very little about PHP. The easier and simpler, the better. I don't require many features, I just want to create an electronic database of enthusiasts.

Thoughts??
Hope I've been clear enough of on what I'm asking for. Thanks for your time.

ergh////edit: Sorry I believe I put this into the wrong subforum :X