Starboard Hypersonic is not a good choice for learning planing, harness, straps, gybing, tacking etc etc (every other board would be better). I had a Hyper a few years back, technically difficult to sail... Takes a while to get the techniqure sussed, even as an experienced sailor.

Any larger freeride board would be a far superior and more enjoyable option (assuming you want her to become a wind addict). Don't think you'll find one less than 7kg though. Probably 7-9 kg.

as someone else once said

take one Starboard Hypersonic and strap it too the roof of an XD Falcon, with mother-in-law in passenger seat, and push it off cliff

like Pugwash said, there are better boards out there for beginner-intermediates. A big Mystral Syncro or any of the bigger sized freerides will be pretty good, light, and floaty enough to advance on.

Cheers

H

Haircut:

Come down to Kirra and find out tomorrow...

*glances furtively at Jethrow's hijacked post and desperately tries to get it back on track*

Erm... hypersonics... voted #1 biggest gimmick by well-informed Seabreeze members named Haircut... (www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=25417)

Have you considered a small JP?

I got my mrs a Starboard GO 139L to learn on. It has 3 sets of strap positions (learner, intermediate and advanced), no centerboard though but has provision for learner "side fins" which we dont use. She's 45kg and skips along pretty well. It has rubber non slip sections over most of the deck, and traditional non-slip abrasive finish on the edges and nose section. The abrasive-type non slip surface is not very forgiving for a learner, my Mrs has taken off loads of skin from her shins and knees on it when falling off...

I also use the board in the light stuff, once it's on the plane it's OK, but doesn't like to turn that much (I'm used to wave/freeride boards that you can throw around at will..)

Jason