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cammd said..
Why not just buy a formula, always plenty about and far better pricing and performance.

You're right about the pricing but there are extra gear requirements for formula like big sails, long full carbon booms and 100% masts. If you can't pick up a complete package it can be tricky to get all the gear. As for smaller sails on formula, not my idea of fun and really for light guys only. You can get away with it ok with older boards like the starboard 159( a timeless classic in my opinion)but with the newer wide body aircraft carriers like my falcon 170 or the patrik 2, 3 and 4's it's not very comfortable.

As for performance, in light to medium wind cruising mode my falcon 170 and JP SLW both cruise around at about 22 or 23 knots. The difference is I need a 10.7 race sail on the falcon where as I'm using an overdrive 8.6 on the JP SLW. That's a huge handling difference. If it's freeriding I'm after I know what I would rather use. And gybing is chalk and cheese. Semi planning step gybes are a piece of cake on the SLW. My 2012 SLW 90 is one of the smoothest riding boards I own. It comes down so slowly and smoothly in the troughs that it just sort of hovers along.

check out the glide in this vid. This is with the Overdrive 8.6 .

^ Cluffy, thanks for posting the video and your opinion based on experience. I appreciated your comments looking at it from a free riding perspective.

Don't write off the formula boards completely. I have an older board: kinetic centurion. It is 100 wide and probably 250 long. I run it with a 56cm fin and Hotsails speed demons 9.7 and 8.0 it planes up easily and I regularly plane out of my gybes. More so on the 8 than the 9.7. This is largely because the 9.7 is really only used in very light wind.

The speed demons ons have no cams and are very easy to pump. They have a large amount of roach and really flex to grab air to generate lift. The speed demons are not as fast as my brothers sail works race sail 9.9, but I plane earlier than him and plane out of gybes more regularly... and he is a better sailor than me.

so.... old formula boards are good, match with a smaller fin and a free ride sail, not a race sail for early planing.

Also I have a cheap 30% mast and cheap boom.

both sails work on a 490 mast! And my alloy boom is flexy but it works.

i reckon I can pump on to the plane in 8kts. I am overpowered on the 9.7 at 14kts! I rig the quickest of all the flat water guys at green point and do very little sail trimming... like I said others are faster, but I'm going first.

Speed wise I have clocked 46kmh on my ripcurl gps watch... just to keep you in the picture.
I think that is about 25kts. Lyndon (who I bought the board from) reckons he has done 27kts on the same board. Lyndon can hold down a bigger sail than me!

I wonder if it's possible to lobby Windsurf magazine to do a test. A 70, 85 and 100kg rider testing a formula, a SLW, an ultrasonic, a big Carve and a big Magic Ride in open ocean and lake conditions in 8, 12 and 15 knots. That would be a good read.

^+1
now THAT would be an AMAZING test
make it an amateur event , but could be broken down as -- Formula + large freeride + large freemove
(sails and fins would need to be adjusted based on weight - like in the KONA races)
.
example - large Freerides are JP SLW, SB US, Fanatic Falcon 152, Tabou Speedster 89 , RRD X-fire 150 & Exocet RS 6.5
should be no need to list large freemoves
.
some people would suggest XL slalom boards as well in such a "comparison"
.
in 2013 i compared JP SLW and SB US as I was looking at getting one (for 100+ kg lightweight)
joewindsurfer.blogspot.com/2013/03/jp-slw-vs-sb-us.html
based on that post and forum discussions is why i call them LARGE freerides ...
tried calling them "FreeFormula" based on an earlier SB model, but that did not go over well

on second thought - just ask Cluffy
go to vimeo user39233007 on web
just need to add the slashes --> http: vimeo com user39233007 (or use google search)
forum does NOT like the url

I have a 2015 JP slw gold (Textreme carbon). I've owned the previous model (90) and 2 formula boards (2005 and 2012) as well as recent large JP slaloms 78 & 84 2012 and 80 2013. The 2015 slw is one of the best boards I've owned (about 50 in total). The 90 was good too. They plane way earlier than any large slalom, otherwise there would be no need for them, and they're fun on any point of sail unlike formula boards.
On light days I sail with a friend who is on a new Starboard ultra sonic with the same size and make of sail. Similar rider weight. The slw planes earlier with same fin size, speed is about the same, generally 22-23 powered up (but I've done 26 on it) and both gybe well. Big advantage of the slw is that it will happily take a 70 fin whereas the US, being much narrower in the tail doesn't handle a 70 as well. So in 9-11 knots of wind I am always on the plane with a 9.2 race sail and the 70 fin (sometimes a 50 weed) and my friend is not always planing.
They're made to get you planing in light wind with a manageable sail ( I use it with a 9.2, sometimes 8.6), they handle swells and chop with ease, they rip upwind with a big fin and the mast base in the back of the track, they gybe really well if you can. What more do you want? Yes I know, 3 new slalom boards, a new speed board, a new bump and jump board, a new wave board... But in 9-12 knots of wind (that's lotsa days) you want a SLW.

My SLW gone to good home