yeah it is much easier with a wide floaty board. they become useful as light wind boards as you progress, and you can teach others with them so most people dont want to sell them!

basically. with the extra width the volume is not as important, it makes a massive difference in the stability. on the biggest sizes of the learner boards they are virtually impossible to fall off unless you try to. the problem is that they are so big they arent practical as you progress. so something like a starboard go which is more performance orientated is good or if you are ambitious one of the larger sizes of the jp xcite ride.

just from looking at the website the 160L seems to be a big freeride. it is big enough to learn on but you definitely will need a small fin for beach starts and such.

hmmm they help for a little while but quickly become obsolete. no probs, your questions saved me from studying....

The longboard/widestyle choice depends on where you are sailing and what sort of sailing you want to do.

If you're sailing in a wide open location, with a bit of chop, and you have a flexible job or not many other restrictions and you want to sail when it's windy, go with the widestyle or some fairly wide board. It's easy to learn on in chop, easy to learn to sail when there's breeze.

But if you are restricted in when you can sail, that normally means you will either have to enjoy light winds or get a lot less time on the water. If you sail in a small bay, lake, river or inlet, you need to be able to get upwind easily and a centreboard is vital when you are learning (even after than IMHO). Most beginner-type boards where we sail end up drifting straight into the mangroves or the rocks, even the ones with small centreboards. Under a small beginner's sail even an expert struggles to get upwind in light winds.

The longboard is tippier from side-to-side but it goes upwind much better most of the time. On most days the wind is pretty light in most places, and the longboard will be faster. Because it is better to sail in light winds, you'll go out in light winds and get a lot more time on the water, so you'll learn quicker.

Many people think back to when they learned on longboards and say they had a hard time. Problem is, they tend to compare people who are being taught incorrectly on a longboard with a cruddy old sail to people being taught correctly on a widestyle board with a tiny sail. A decent more modern sail makes a huge difference and so does the instructor. About half of the people we've put on a board for the first time (who are still in the country) now own their own gear and one of them was the Aussie rep at the Youth Worlds. ALL of them learned on longboards.

The Bic Techno 160 is not a bad board if you are sailing in open waters and a breeze. It's big and stable, you have to use a lot of back foot pressure to gybe it, but it's easy to sail in medium breezes. In light winds it's way way slower than a longboard in light winds and with very little upwind ability.

Personally I find those old 3.4 m boards aren't either longboard or a shortboard or anything else.....too short to be long, too long to be short.

Hey Blueseven, all the above is good advice. I have a Bic Techno 283 which is 150 litres. Yes you can definitley learn on this, but it may be a bit wobbly for you in lite winds with your weight. But this board or a bit smaller would be great when you are ready to plane and get in the straps. A big volume board is much more forgiving and will allow you to learn things like carve gybes much quicker. Then when you jump on a small volume board, its just a matter of refining and adjusting your technique.

But Gybsports is on the money, in fact I would recommend lessons, you will learn more quickly and avoid learning poor technique which you could have for years or ever, and you get to use their wide style learner board to save you buying one. I wish I had lessons when I was learning, would have saved me many years of frustration.