Hi everyone,

I’m in the market for two new boards and I’m hoping some of you have had experience with upgrading to a similar setup and can point me in the right direction.

I’m around 87kgs/190lbs, and ride a HA770, MA 790, 990, 5’4” 98L nugget style board and I try not to use anything over a 5m wing.

I can land gybes, tacks consistently and I’m pretty comfortable riding swell.

I’ve been looking at mid lengths between 85L and 95L, as I want this board to open up some lighter wind days, but also want to ride it in swell so don’t want to go too big, I’m ok with sacrificing some low end for better maneuverability.

I find the nugget can be difficult to get unstuck if it’s between (12-14kts), even with heavy pumping and I’m hoping the mid length would eliminate this problem.

But, I’m wondering if I could go down to a 65 or 70L mid length and be able to get up in say 12-14kts - from the research I’ve done it seems like this might be a struggle and not really worth the gain in maneuverability.

For the second board I’m thinking of going for a 48L prone board. So I can start surf foiling and when it’s nuking I can use this as my small board.

I just started riding my new 2026 F-One Rocket Wing S Carbon 5'10/ 80L, and I think it might be your golden ticket, as its not too long / narrow (which you feel, even though people say you dont notice it), and its really thin so you get a very direct feel. It feels smaller than my previous 5'4 /75L board, while being noticably faster to get up. Personally I have a 4'9 / 70L for the windy days, as I dont believe in really low volume boards, its more playful than my old 5'0/54L but easier to get up by a big margin for me (95kgs). Ofcourse I dont surffoil, so thats where I understand your lean for a smaller board.

Anyhow, for your weight it'd be a hard choice between 70 or 80L, but I'm happy I picked the bigger one as like I've said, it feels smaller than you'd expect for an 80L board once up. I could probably do with the 70L even at my weight too.

For context, I ride a 4.5 mainly from 12-25 knots and this board does it for me. My previous boards required at least 15 knot gusts, now I can make do with 12.

The real midlength boards are quite specialised tools honestly compared to crossovers like this Rocket Wing S, if you really want that ultimate low-end or dont like to pump at all. 12 knots is not magically low with a 5m at your weight, so a true midlength isnt necessarily needed to get there and will have the drawbacks of added length and thickness.

I started my PW journey on a 95L Sunova Carver, which I picked up used. I weigh 90 kgs and do a lot of lite wind (12-15 knots) parawinging. After learning the basics, I sold the board and now use an Axis Mini Dart knockoff, made by a local shaper. It’s 80L, with dims 6’2”x 19.5”x 4.9” w some nose and tail rocker. The new board is slower getting to plaining speed compared to the 95L Carver, but the rocker helps with pumping at a faster cadence. The thinner new board also gives a better feeling of connection to the foil.

i've had midlengths and bars of soap. i've found there isn't much difference in getting up in lighter winds between them. sure, the bars of soap stick a bit more, but if there's not enough wind to get up on the bar of soap, i'm also not getting up on the midlength. the one board factor i dislike most is thickness. i've sold all my over 6' boards and maintain my Omen 72L 5'9" Flux for the lighter stuff and Appletree DW Prone 57L for stronger stuff (which you could likely prone with). I'm 90 kgs.