I Live in the Geelong area as well and the boards of choice around here tend to be boards that go well in the 15knots sea breezes we get. Theres a few Go's, lots of hypersonics and some other light wind slalom boards thrown in. I'd be looking for something that will take a reasonable big sail for those marginal wind days. You'll probably end up getting a second board for higher winds/more advanced but to have a light wind back up is great.

Cheers

Hey Oceanblue64

I am around 75-80 kgs and 170cm, my first board was a GO 150 litre board and it was probably the best purchase I have ever made. All GO's have rounded floaty ends that are buoyant, they are generally more stable and easier to learn on than your "pointier" boards. A mate had at bought a JP Xcite ride (around 150L) to learn on, he found my GO slightly easier as well to ride when not planing. (HE is selling the JP + neil pryde rig, all new used 3 times, moved to the country, will be in seabreeze buy and sell soon!).
My other mate has a 139L GO as a first board- a great board and handles the chop a bit easier than the 150 but still easy to learn on.
I have had my GO for around 3.5 years now and i still sail it much more than my smaller board when using bigger sails (>6.5m), I easily double the amount of days on the water than guys that have only sub 100L boards. They have an EVA skin which is great to learn on because you wont rip the hell out of your knees and shins, something that i did when I bought my carve. They are also pretty durable, when learning I had smashed into all types of stuff with only a few scratches to the board.

Resale value isnt bad either... not that you would sell it because you can use it so often.

The only hassle is the fin, because it is so long you have to be careful about the depth of water you sail in as well as weeds- a weed fin could overcome that though.

I am getting a bit tired of the GO 150 after 2 years... partly having friends on 15 year old longboards tell me to get a board like theirs to go faster... but it has been great learning to handle real wind, swells and getting planing.

I think a centreboard design like the START would be much better in light wind. The real beginners I teach on the GO just blow away downwind... I can't tack it upwind in light breezes.

Thanks for all your replies.

A little while ago I picked up some older long boards but after reading comments here and elsewhere decided that a newer, wider board would be better to learn on and a little less frustrating. I will leave those boards for when I actually manage to do more than fall off.

It seems the Go is the most popular but that also means having to save a little more than I planned to spend. I guess it will depend on how impatient I get, especially if the weather is good!

Thanks for all your advice and maybe when I get my new rig, I can catch up with some of the Geelong locals to get pointers