Im not very good at giving advice but I just want to say... nice username

phuknuckle said...

Hi All

I find the board a bit difficult to decide. I am thinking about getting a 2nd hand
freeride board (with centre board), approxmately 130L or so. I may or may not
grow out of the board. If I do, then i've only paid 2nd hand price. Nb/ I'm about
62kg and about 175cm high.

A free ride board with a centreboard? most boards that have centre boards are learner boards or really old boards, go for something widish say 60-80cm. 130 litres for 62Kg is a lot, u will definatly want something smaller very quickly, around 100 litres would be better. but its upto you...

Get a decent new style board of the volume you suggested. A board of this volume will initially make your sailing easier. As you progress and get better you can alway purchase a smaller board and keep the bigger one as your light wind board.

I weigh around 75kgs and bought a second hand Tabou Rocket 140. Its a very nice and easy board to sail. My biggest sail is a 6.5 and I find I am getting going as quickly as anyone else where others are using 8 or 9 meter sails.

As funds permit I will look at buying a smaller Rocket and larger sails, but that will require bigger booms, longer masts......

I wpuld strongly suggest a Satrboard Carve 99ltr, or 110ltr

You can get a good second hand one from about $400 upwards.

I bought one when i moved to Perth and it really has bought my sailing on in leaps and bounds.

I had been struggling with my carve gybe for some time but when i got this board i cracked it the second time out on it and now im getting about 90% of them.
Ive also learnt to jump with this board and its the best feeling ever.
I really feel that my sailing has progressed so much in the last 3 months because of this board so

Starboard Carve is the way to go bro!!

OceanBlue64 said...

Get a Starboard GO. Great board to learn on. I have been progressing quite quickly since I got mine. And the good thing is they have good resale value if you want to move to a more advanced board.

You must be working on commission with the GO's, OB64!

I agree though, the GO is possibly the best introductory board, and light wind board to keep. I learnt on a mate's GO for a few months, then bought a JP Xcite (che-ching!) The prob with the GO is, it rides different than any board I've been on, which makes progressing to the next level difficult, unless you look at smaller GOs. The JP, being more responsive made the transition (for me, at least) to a smaller board easier, and it's also a great light-med wind board, as well as fast, and fun in small waves, and chop!

p/knuckle, (sorry, can't get myself to type the full name)
at your (light) weight, I wouldn't consider a centreboard, after you get the hang of it, it'll get in the way most of the time, invest in a bigger fin instead. As for the "harmless, and foot-scraps", welcome to the 'grammar critic's class of '08'!!

jord070 said...

well with the skinny question,

skinny masts are the best thing since sliced bread, unless the sail isnt designed for it...

i dont know about the sails your asking about, but with the super freak, a skinny or RDM, makes it a more powerfull and wave feeling sail, where as a SDM makes it a more low power free ride sail, giving it limited wind range... but that isnt to say for all sails,

best thing is ask if you can rig the sail up on the skinny and if it doesnt look good, get a sdm but only if it is a better shape, because most sails now are going towards skinnies for best performance..

so i hope that helps

Jordo do you take your superfreak to bed with you each night? It seems like your in love

I thought the harmless was what you use to tie yourself to the wishbone thingie so you can push your weight onto the mask? It's meant to help take your weight off your feet so you don't smash your toes on the foot scraps when you're trying to get planning

Don't worry PeaKnuckle - the boys are just messing with you in a good natured way.. Don't take it too personally!

My old man has a Go 155, and it is a great board. I had it out last night in 20 knots with a 5.7m sail and was jumping it off chop. I would have been more comfortable on my 104 litre freestyle board, but it was fun overtaking the boys who were planing on their waveboards! At that size it'd be too big for you except in very light wind (I'm 85kg after a dunking).

I'd suggest not getting something too big if you're planning to progress fairly quickly. It's actually more about width than volume, because the trouble mostly comes from getting too much air under the board and being flipped over backwards. If you are a heavy guy (which you're not) you can hold more board on the water. You're pretty light, so I'd look in the 90-110 litre range to be comfortable uphauling, and somewhere around 60-65cm wide (or less) to get you planing.

The Carve as suggested earlier would be a good choice. Probably wise to look at free-ride oriented boards at this stage of your progression - freestyle boards are a bit more technical to ride.

jord070 said...
i can tell you dont own one, because you would be in love too . but she sleeps nice and sound in the shed with all the others....

That's the first time I've seen a gender associated with a sail!

I reckon Jord is angling for some sponsorship deal.. either that, or he's figured out at an early age that toys are cheaper to keep than women, and they don't hunt you down when you upgrade to a newer model with better features!

Ahh jordo your gunna cry when you tear that baby in two peices up at lano on a mast high day[}:)]

That's the spirit Jordo!! Go hard or go home

How's the foot Jordo?

nobody said...
It sounds like Jason is not far off a beginner.....

I'd like to see you get on a 130L or less board and beat a "really old" raceboard or even a Windsurfer OD around a triangle course with the same size sail.

To be fair, the long skinny boards do glide better in light winds than their wider cousins. But if, as you stated, Jason is not far off a beginner I doubt he'd yet be comfortable racing around a triangle course to prove the point.

For your logic to work, we'd need to set up Jason on a "really old" raceboard or even a Windsurfer OD and find another Jason to set up on a modern wide style free ride board without a centreboard, or better yet, and to make the difference in width more exaggerated, something like a Starboard Start at 1m wide.

I have a feeling that one of those Jasons will spend a lot of time wobbling, falling in and then uphauling again while the other sails possibly slower than 'nobody' could around the course.

Learners benefit from the stability offered by a wider board. There's plenty else to focus on without a wobbly board underfoot!

Besides, as Charles says, buying one of those old boards would be a waste of money.. chances are that someone on your street has one in the back of their shed that they'd love you to take off their hands![}:)] There was a guy at my local beach just the other day who was re-aquainting himself with his Trax 340 which he'd rediscovered in the ceiling of his garage roof.. it had been there for 26 years..

I just picked up a slightly damaged Start really cheaply to use in light winds, and to get my friends to learn on, and when compared with the old-school Bic Melody that I had for that purpose before it is almost effortless to get people up and cruising with a small sail. I let the guy with the Trax have a go on it, and he was off and sailing in no time where previously he'd just been wobbling around on his Trax.

Stick with the wide boards for now - if you later decide that racing around a triangle course in 5 knots is what you want to do, then look at a long narrow board..


nobody - I'd come down and sail with you, even let you take the start for a ride, but it's a bit far to come just to prove that learners wobble less and spend more time actually sailing on a wider board!

Thats correct Russ, we have a shed full of stuff, just that the wife is a hoarder and refuses to let it go!

We have 6 boards, at least 8 sails, only 4 that we use, as well as old harness's and other goodies.

Yup.. all about context. If you don't state it, you mislead people! Such is the joy of the internet..

I'm confused though, in one post you're arguing that Jason is a beginner, and in the next we're not talking about a beginner?? Odd seeing as this is an almost beginner thread!

For the sake of correctness, the Start which I spoke of cost me $350 nzd, came in a padded bag with a 40cm fin, is 230 litres, has an eva (soft rubber) skin and is most definitely not a fragile Formula board! I believe the design is based around a formula board, but made more grunty to suit the beginner abuse. It even has a little centre fin that you can bolt in if you want. (not that you need to..)

Nothing wrong with centreboard boards. Equally, there's nothing wrong with specialised raised track-racing bicycles, but I wouldn't want to learn to ride one as my first bike!

There are pros and cons either way in the wide/narrow debate.

Hope you had a good sail!

Elizabeth, fark, thats a hike to the beach! Semaphore would be your local break eh?