choosywinger said..
The medium/big wind swell significantly increased the challenge of getting up and going compared to prior sessions in lighter conditions on a lake with much smaller swell.
That is a rather important point. I've been on larger DW boards twice, once on flat water (Bird Island in Corpus Christi) and once in confused medium chop (Kalmus, Cape Cod, 20+ knots wind). I had zero problems on flat water, but the chop was really challenging. I often fell after standing up, before I was able to get on the foil. That's even though the board was a couple of inches wider than the one I had used on flat water. On my wider traditional boards, it's quite rare that I fall trying to get going. It's not just the reduced width of the DW board, but also the increased thickness and the rail shape. On flat water, any bit of speed (that is picked up quickly) will add stability, but in chop, it does not feel that way.
choosywinger said..
But I also wonder whether a more neutral buoyancy board (I weigh ~85kg) with similar, slight shorter dimensions, may have been easier.
That would be interesting to know. I've read that neutral buoyancy boards are more challenging than + or - boards in traditional shapes, but don't know if that is generally true. Even if so, things could be different for narrower, longer boards.
