ive been pratting around on big old heavy **e for a while and have decided to buy a board better suited to me. i am still very much a beginner, but have now invested in some sails and am about to take the plunge into buying a board. i have narrowed it down to two. so, go or rio? any help would be appreciated. cheers.

Hiya mate,

We've probably already discussed some of this but it might be a good idea to see if anybody else agrees/disagrees with it...

IMHO both have their pros and cons; the RIO will be by far the easier to learn the basics on due to the increased volume and daggerboard but you will out grow it quicker. Given that you are probably about 100kg(?) you would definitely want at least the biggest Go (177L?) and would benefit initially from the medium Rio (195L?); once you progress onto a smaller board you will only use a board of that volume in very light wind with a very big sail (or to teach somebody else), but the Go would be better due to no daggerboard slot and more advanced footstrap settings.

Unfortunately, I think it was said in a recent Boards or Windsurf magazine "the better a board is to learn on, the quicker you out grow it".

In an ideal world you would either buy a second hand modern board and resell it with little to no loss after a short period, or you'd at least be able to demo them both to see if what you have managed to learn on the Titanic is enough to allow you to manage on the more advanced board (i.e. Go).

Just a thought but I wonder what boards Onboard would suggest as they may have demo boards(don't think they do Starboard anymore?); also an hour or 2 of real instruction on a modern board might get you to the point where you can manage on the go without the daggerboard.

If not, I'd probably go with the Rio as you are better off progressing quickly than struggling for longer than necessary, and you'll want a much smaller board than either of them in no time anyway.

indeed, thanks lads!

i think arlo's advice suits me better. ill go with the Rio, then the fanatic (hopefully).

saturday at goolwa then? sounds good to me. ill bring my shower cap!

i'm sure it is better to use than my 18th century Kingfisher 6 berth canal barge. it came with decendants of the original horses used to tow the thing around the manchester waterways.

you rat, there is a spanner in gears going round in my head! what vol?

hi arlo my go is 150 ltrs

go the go, much better board for advancing on, and fast too! with the rite fin, my go is around 160 and, is great

I'm not really sure but i thnk you can borrow them from onboard or glasscraft. Especially if you say your most probably going to buy one. They might make you hire one but when your spending that much it might be a good idea anyway just to be sure on what you want. Use your own sails if you have a choice aswell.

Bubs

Have you managed to get hold of the guy at Glascraft about demoing a Go?

If you can get by with a 150L, or more likely a 170L, Go then it would definitely be the better long term option.

he he.

another option for me is a JP funster. appart from the gay name, does anyone have an opinion on these compared to the go? i spoke to one guy and apparently, the JPnis better???