254 posts
The old style big and wide boards were great to learn on. I learned on the starboard hyper nut 4-n-1 which was 8'0 by 31" and 131L i think. It was great to learn on. Wide and stable and allowed me to get the feel paddling into waves and getting on foil. I had a few years of regular SUP surfing when I got this board and started sup foiling. Also back in the day there was a video of one of the starboard riders doing a flat water paddle up on one of these boards. It was a smaller version but still the soap bar shape. I regret selling it. I ended up buying a hyper foil board which is 7'2 x 31 x 137 liters, i think, that I let some of my friends use to try and learn sup foiling. I am just below 90kgs. They are older than 50 and my size are bigger and watch these videos of these smaller, young, and more athletic guys that ride every day on skinny downwind boards. One has already wasted 2500 bucks and could not even stand and paddle on it in flat water after several tries. Several of my other friends tried with the same result. They have no problem standing on the hyper foil. I think the naish hover crossover downwind boards in the 125 liter range and 145 liter range are greater for bigger guys. They are in the 24-25" wide range which can be learned on and still be fun later on. The industry pretty much thinks everyone wants 20" or narrower boards to do it all and has forgotten about this group. They are faster and in my opinion not by much but being a few inches wider makes for a more fun experience with out requiring perfectly glassy sessions. I think there is still a market for a wider 24-26" downwind shape board for strictly sup foiling for the weekend warrior older type riders. This demographic also usually has the money for these types of boards. They would be good transition boards if they get good enough to transition to a narrower type board rather than jumping straight to a toothpick.
