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Today we borrowed the Start board from Oliver at Cline Street. He does that for club members, you can borrow instead of rent. My wife went out for 75-90 minutes and did FANTASTIC. She's been picking this right up. She can make her way upwind a bit and the Start made it a lot easier to worry about windsurfing and not balance.
After she came back, I took it out with my Ezzy 7.8. I got it planing -- just *barely* -- twice, once in each direction. I was in the straps, etc. I found it easy to sail at a slow plane. It was short lived, though. Never time did I go more than about 200 yards before it was just too still to keep moving. Had I anything, probably, I would have been able to keep going. 210 liters of volume will do that.
I found it planed about the same as my much smaller Allstar 70 (140 liters). Surely it would handle bigger sails better than the Allstar, but with the same size sail, the Allstar did okay. The fin was pretty small, too, and that would probably make a difference. The Start would allow me to use a bigger sail and fin than the Allstar (though I don't come close to testing the Allstars limits with the 7.8 and my assortment of fins, either).
All in all, a good day. My wife is doing better at this stage than I was. Sure, the conditions are better and the equipment is better, but that is what is great. People CAN get into this sport a lot easier and quicker, and in spots where it isn't windy all that often.
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