Oooops, sorry for late replies, the wind came up and ....whoooooooooooosh down to the beach

Cauncy - Thanks for the link. I checked out Shinn, mailed them and got a really nice rapid response mail back from Mark Shinn.
Oh be still mine heart, lovely board...729euros
He also seconded what you said,
it depends... Although a 129 x 39 sounds about right. The smaller size for an aggressive rider (moi) but doesn't solve wave in face prob. Interestingly they don't use carbon which I was told is the holy grail of boards... I'm sure they're worth every penny but, unfortunately, my wallet had a heart attack.
Brisbud - Thanks for the pic. Super board, sadly it's right up there in the same moula category, I was aiming for a last year model... You are right though, my board is about 6-7 years old, even a plank would be an upgrade
Glad I had it two days ago though, got smashed around in the surf in 25 knots trying to do the beach start. The board took a right walloping of stones and dragging, with me attached. For this reason and motheaten wallet, I have decided to go with the second hand girls North Paris 129 x 39. I'll then at least have some benchmark other than the banger to compare with, also, I won't have to be too precious with it, a skill killer if ever there was one. In a year or so hopefully I'll be skilled enough to do justice to a rolls royce!
Loftywinds -

I never thought of that! The old eyes though, really hurts when you're speeding along and get a wave full force in the eyeball
I have an appreciation of the tech side of boards now anyway, so nothing is lost.
I'll post an update on how it goes.
Many thanks to all of you who kindly took the time to help out a greenhorn on the other side of the globe, it's much appreciated