Hi guy and girls im looking at getting back into windsurfing its been about 20 years. I regularly Sup and was thinking of trying one of my old rigs on my Fanatic wavepro 9"3' SUP as it has a mast srcew in it . My question is are these SUP boards any good for windsurfing or is it more of a gimmick, if so what rig sizes would suit as i am 85kg. And what is the ideal wind speed ect. Cheers

Gday. Welcome back. Not sure how stable your sup is but my kids are learning to windsurf on a sup. Thanks Cammd. As good as anything to get the basics.

Having windsurfed for ages I got a 10' SUP a few years back. At first I was falling off heaps especially since you are standing front on.
After getting my balance sorted realised I could have gone smaller size - it must be 120 litres at least. My largest wave board is 90 litres.

SUP could be fun I guess with a sail but only up to probably 12 knots? Haven't SUP sailed so ??

With a SUP you still pretty much stand in the middle then back further when surfing like a longboard so with a sail attached I imagine it would
be pretty awkward.

Also going back to windsurfing you stand side on and the boards are about 55-65cm wide, SUPs 70-80 wide.

On the plus side, windsurf gear now is quite specific so pick your interest (wave, freestyle, slalom, formula/race etc.) - boards are better planing
and sails have better range & efficiency. I have a 400 mast which fits 4.5-5.6.

Good luck.

They are fine for learning on, you will sail it piece of cake with a 5-6m in 12kn. You may get bored of it real fast if you have windsurfed before though...... but that's good cos then you will buy more boards and sails and find out just how much more awesome than ever this sport is on the new gear

Only other comment after I buggered up the weak-as stoopid insert in a SUP recently:
clean the thread realllyy well. Use a M8 blind end tap. Or get a M8 bolt, cut a slot almost longutidinally in the business end (so there is a groove for crap to collect in) and clean it out well with that a few times.
Then clean your mast base thread.
Wash both (with anal attention to detail)
Make sure the hole in the insert is deep enough for the mast base bolt
Don't overtighten.

Even then you may still bugger up that stoopid 10c plastic insert they used in the SUP.

I think wave sailing on a sup is super fun up to 15 knots. 9'3" is great.

Use a 5.3 to 5.5 sail. The idea is not to plane on the way out. They shoot up wind nicely. Then cruise the wave. It will behave like a mini mal on the wave face.

Sups are also great to practice light wind manoeuvres like tacks, helitacks, upwind 360s. This improves your wave sailing out of sight!

I did all of the above in a clinic on Maui. 12 other windsurfer did it aswell. We all thought it was going to be lame. But we all loved it.

It showed me you don't have to plane to have fun

Thanks guys, i might have to look at buying some new gear, just going through my garage found 3 sails 4, 4.7 & 5 metre, a boom which is all seized up mast base but cant find the mast. Im going down to the Merimbula classic at the end of the month so hopefully i might be able to try some of the new gear down there.

You can even get them to go pretty fast:

Can't disagree with most of the above. I sail mine in small waves and up to about 12-15kts. Great fun and a sort of simplicity to the set up is appealing in its own way. I use a slightly bigger fin when sailing and not paddling