I guess I am comparing to my own kit. My 80+cm wide board was (sold it off) a Bic Nova 165, a 24 lb heavy slug of a board that was never that much fun even when fully planing in the straps, and my 70cm wide board is a light (but fragile) Severne Fox 120 that is not early planing but really fun, fast, and silky smooth in any chop. No comparison in the riding experience, always preferred the Fox except if there was possibly the need to uphaul in 2+ feet chop. I've since sold off the 8.0, that's winging wind range.

I started on a similar big heavy board, I think it's 170L Nova. Was great to start on but due to the US box and stock fin I don't think will ever go fast. Have always thoguht about putting a tuttle box in and seeing if I could find like a 65cm fin to go on it.

The RRD is a super board, but just gets pushed around by any chop. Bolt could care less about chop but my technique needs to get better to get planing especially when it's light.

For whatever reason I've really started liking footstraps early before planing lately, looks a lot like this Cookie short. www.instagram.com/p/C86JEmcoltu/ It seems good for coasting through lulls or taking advantage of a really short puff. It's quite different from the way the dude I sail with often gets to the straps, he really seems to wait until high teens of board speed before getting both straps.

Having had the chance to sail my new-to-me and awesome Fanatic Ultra Cat: what's the technique for tacking and gybing longboards? The board is super efficient and fast in a straight line, but really resists making turns.

So far I was trying:
Tacks: Board down, rail to leeward, big exaggerated rig movement, and crossing very early and dropping low with the sail way out front and pushing down on the mast base

Gybes: Uh... bring a book? Board up, big windward rail pressure, very extreme rig to leeward and fwd with front hand aft of the harness lines. It's pretty wobbly so I've been stepping early and then sailing clew first for a bit.

Now that Evanston beaches will soon all be open, you need to consider coming out and trying the big Lake on a S, SE, or SSW wind, which are flat safe directions easily doable at your skill level. With your big stuff, anything 18 kts or better reading from Chicago Crib should work (that is big sails, crib reading is 75 ft above lake), and Greenwood or Lee St beaches are great launches on those directions. On S or SW directions, schlog past the breakwalls and then the wind picks up dramatically, then you have however long reach you want, the other day we were winging down to Chicago border.

I would really like to. Imagine the wind would be a lot cleaner than the little lakes I go to. I've been pretty limited on sailing this summer but did have one absolutely perfect wind day and felt great and then have had a bunch of drifters.

If you're ever going out hit me up on instagram or I'll give you my contact info, would love to try it on a day when there are other people on the water. Had a really nice SSE day this past Sat but I was on the big boat. Was a ton of fun but I kept thinking about how clean the wind was for WS!