im on the look out for a new race board to do some training on to compete next year.
im about 97 kgs got a few years of racing and sup surfing experience.
i do about 80% flat water and 20% open water.
my options are starboard,naish,or jp australia,or jimmy lewis.
any help please.

cheers

Hi Dean, I like to race and compete as well. i,m far from an expert in it (and still prever waves over anything else) but can give you my 2cents: In dead flat water the Starboard Sprint is hard to beat.I,m 90kg and got a 14x26 and its pretty fast (10 km p/h average on a 10km race is relative easy where it was a mission impossible on my 2012 Fanatic Falcon Flatwater.
I tried last weekend the Sprint 14x24 and that one FELT even faster (didnt wear my gps to measure), but slightly more wobbly. In choppy water the 24 would be too much for me, but for dead flat water its probably the fastest 14 you can buy.Absolutely not relevant performance wise but I really like the way they slice through the water without a sound and that its really stable, it just makes paddling more fun to me and they are also less fragile as last years model.
Only downtrade is that they are harder to turn 180 because of the high fatwalls at the tail as flatdeck boards. Its very doable but needed to train that a bit before i got them right for the races.Also tried the Flacon flatwater14x24, in acceleration from zero to max out it felt a bit faster as my sprint, but when you want to go gear up and paddle faster as 9.5km p/h it feels draggy.
Performancewise it isnt noticeable as the board get pretty easily over 10km p/h, but it FELT like paddling through the mud and it throws up more water as my Sprint making it noisy.
Its a bit more floaty and with the wide flat tail easier to turn as the sprints and with the slightly higher nose I guess better in open water.
Good for your weight, but imo too thick for lightweights. With the flat deck easy to turn, but somehow not as easy as expected.In the Garden I got a JP flatwater 14x24 from a friend waiting to try.
The JP looks very slick and my pal is tall and does very well on it, but its imo to low in volume for your weight.Naish: I like there look but in dead flatwater they are just not as fast as the Sprints and Falcon.

Outsider: I was pretty impressed by the speed of the Allstar 14x25.5 in flatwater.
If your races are technical with lots of 180degree turns and choppy conditions this might be an interesting board as well because it got a great acceleration and is really easy to turn.
No experience with Jimmy Lewis.