Ady wrote: Haha! Love it!

In the 5.0m size, I think the Cheetah would be the best bet, as the smallest Lion is 6.0m. I actually have a Lion 7.0 that I have really enjoyed. First try on it last year I was all excited for windier but cold conditions at Wolf, plus I have the Lion and a carbon fin to try, but forgot my harness, so had possibly the worst combo for what I did all day which was practicing waterstarts! It did convince me that the camber sail-the Lion at least-wasn't all that much harder to handle as all I did that day was waterstart/beachstart, blast in straps but no harness, gybe or tack, and the do it over again.

As to time on the water... I feel like I get a lot more than you and still feel like it's never enough. I was lucky enough to have a long day out on Monday, as usually I only sail for about an hour and half to make sure I'm back in town for kids pickup. I really feel like a longer sail with a break in the middle is better for learning. I should have gone Tuesday as well but decided to go to work instead (dumb)

I was planning on hitting Evanston last year but never had freedom on the right conditions for it. Planing on it this year again, but work might force me to start there later in summer when I understand you can get a half price beach pass. If you ever know of a group sailing or a fortuiitous condition hit me up in spring and I'll make an effort to go.

I will say big breeze was not intimidating, more like awesome as having a smaller sail was pretty easy to handle. The sail didn't honestly feel all that bad even rigged wrong, but I do wonder if it would have been easier to plane with the right mast or a different sail. Still consider the day a total success as it was fun and the smaller board (still the highest volume if not the widest out there that day) was not impossible, in fact it was pretty fun. I've had a week long smile on my face for the planing runs, as it was so so much nicer than the big breeze days last fall. I'm sure it's not just the volume and widfth, but the Bolt was much more comfortable throuch chop. The RRD (which is still great!) really felt like riding a mountain bike through moguls, just really beat me up and I couldn't get it going very fast.