I looked at this board of Mikes yesterday and it looks awesome.
Great work with the presentation on Ocean Paddling as well Mike. Thanks for sharing the info, really enjoyed it.
You can see the new C4 14' down wind board in this new vid.. (about the 30 sec mark)
It looks very nice.. Does anyone know when they're available here and how much they will cost?.. Is it still called a Vortice?
DJ
As with any form of stand up paddle board - try as many as you can first in the conditions you will be using it in. HOWEVER take into account the fact that you are probably going to want to sell or update it within the first 6-12mths so BEWARE of what you buy because you may well either lose a huge amount of $ or not be able to sell it at all. If you can perhaps pick up a good second hand board because you possibly wont lose so much on it when you offload it. I know very little about race boards but have a reasonable knowledge of sups in general and I would tend to steer someone new to racing/downwinding/cruising towards perhaps a second hand naish simply for the quality of the finished product and the resale value. Yes there are faster and prettier boards around but starting out you want a strong and proven board that is easy to sell if and when you decide to move on.