Hi folks what's the consensus on volume PW board? Body weight? Minus/plus 10 or 20?
Feels like ML shapes are the way to go but some shapes are over 5" thick????
Use in 15+ knots, what's been working for you and why?
For me, +5 (bar*gf= 4.59) is way easier than my -8 (bar*gf= 3.22) when there isn't much for bumps. It's a huge difference. When there's bumps though, the -8 with a chopped tail get's pushed nicely by the swell and the takeoff is very reliable.
If you have a full quiver of parawings, and can swap sizes on demand, you could easily just power up in the flat water for a sailing session with a -10l board and have plenty of fun as long as you harness in.
Depends on your spot. Reliable side/on shore strong wind -10. Gusty cross/off shore wind +10. Longer narrow shapes help get up but the swing weight is an issue. For my 90+kg I have gone for a 6 x 22 x 106l Smik "The Jack".
I probably own and tested some of the most popular boards for parawing out there. For reference I weight 92kg, ride PW starting from 16kt in choppy waters with currents. Foils used were Armstrong HA1080 first and now KT Atlas 1130. The boards I tested, in progression, since I started 4 months ago till now where I can jibe successfully and easily do fold&releases:
1. Gong Cruzader Diamond 6'4 122L 2025 -> horrible board, too thick, very slow to take off and unstable while schlogging due to its excessive thickness.
2. KT Super K2 6'5 104L 2025 -> with this board I understood what PW is about. Such a joy to ride, easy to pump while keep PW steady. I used it for about dozen rides and I was ready to downsize
3. KT Super K2 6'2 90L 2025 -> all the above but easier to move around in powered conditions. This is now my PW and wing board which I carry and travel with wherever I go. I travel with a 5.5m wing and a BRM 4.7m/3.2m PW set to cover light to strong conditions.//
I have recently purchased also a KT Dragonfly Surf 2 7'2 106L which I hope to use for PW in the sub 15kt days to lower my PW threshold by couple of knots. Yes, its long, yes it can be tracky, yes it comes with no strap inserts, but even KT in their line-up presentation introduced it as the perfect lightwind PW board and plenty of users of this forum, including Foil the Greats (check his YT) showed its capabilities in lighter conditions.
The takeaway, at least in my experience, is to start and progress with a strapped ML, ranging from 6 to 6'5", max 20" wide, +0 to +20L from a reputable shaper. Designing ML boards is not as easy as it might appear and I tried several ML boards (GONG, North, Sabfoil to name a few) which were very uninspiring.
I'd say bodyweight is good, but add the weight of a wet wetsuit and add 2-3L if in fresh water. So in practice it about +5 - 10. My board is body weight, but with my winter wetsuit it sinks slightly if there's not enough pull from the PW in lulls. But it's generally still fine.
