first taste of windsup, seeking advice

[PonoBill]

I don't agree with Mr. Spook's first post--so what else is new? But his second post is right on the money. I'm a long time windsurfer with a lot of boards gathering dust in the garage loft in Maui--and a couple here in hood river. I never use them. Mostly I sail my 12'2" starboard, but I have mast tracks on an 11'7" JL, an SIC Ku Nalu, a Foote 10', and several others I"m not remembering. That's what I sail.

Spook sounds like an experienced windsurfer, which means he's used to carrying 3 boards, seven sails, three booms, four masts, and a trunk full of widgets and gobbins. I used to do the same. Now I carry a 5.0 sail, one mast, one boom and my SUP board. Sometimes I forget my harness--no big deal if I do. This is like old school windsurfing, but the big difference is that when you get to a wave, you're on a surfboard and you can surf. Windsurf boards need to be powered up all the time, within a fairly small band of wind and sail. SUP sailing isn't like that. It's power surfing. And it's a lot more fun.

In answer to your question, ditch the thrusters (or swap them side to side, with the foil inward--worth a try) and go to a bigger fin. Going upwind is a learned skill unless you have a daggerboard. You use the rail, not really the fin, but it will come. The walk of shame for windsurfers is the long hike required when you can't go upwind. It gets shorter every time.

Windsurfing is a very difficult sport to learn. As windsurfers sneer: "If it was easy, they'd call it kiting". It's much easier to learn on a SUP board with one reasonable sail. I"m 245 and my goto sail is a 5.5 Hot Sails Superfreak. Superfreaks are kind of made for SUP sailing. They give a steady push instead of the instant power mylar sails offer. If you can find some used, you'll probably never want anything else. they're a bit expensive, but they last forever. Mine are seven years old, which in Windsurfing years is at least 49.

[flathead]

"You use the rail, not really the fin"

This was the big difference :-) The first time I sailed the sup. I instinctively tried to pump it up onto the fin. Then it came back - the rail is what it is all about. It really is the most chillaxed thing sailing these big wave boards - agree with everything else you say there PonoBill!