I'm looking at getting a new board. I'm 80kgs riding a 148 slingshot, looking at getting about a 135 board. Are the concave boards better? ?? ??? What's the diff ? ??? Thanks

In my experience from riding underground flxs pre-concave and riding my own home built boards with concave, I'd say that the concave tends to give the board slightly better tracking and reduces the skatey feel slightly. I prefer 5mm or so of concave and that's what I'll put into my next board. I'd be interested in seeing how the new underground double concave boards go. I can see the argument for claiming better stability when landing jumps but what about when edging hard? the water flow isn't parrallel to the long axis of the board then so it must be crossing the concaves. Would that slow it down or add lift? In really flat water and hard edging conditions I can really see the toe side fins on my flx22 getting hit by water crossing the board rather than flowing with it. Does this matter? I don't know. One thing's for sure - these board operate in a very different manner to sailboards so a direct transfer of shapes and ideas won't necessarily work.

Back to back testing of the same board with and without the concave would be the best way to compare but isn't really all that easy to organise.

*ramble over......