dude it depenes on the boards shape to some wave boards are slow and some are fast as for litres i'm 75kg and my biggest board is 80Lt but on flat water i could go to 90lt but i think it all comes down to the sailers cunfort if she think its to big its to big.

Skill level is a factor as well, my wife is smaller than me but feels more comfortable on a bigger board than I'm riding. Bigger board has more stability so it's easier to gybe and gets on the plane quicker, she also doesn't like going flat out, so doesn't have as much trouble with the board bouncing around.
My wife's favourite board is close to 90l (agrees with nat, it's a new style waveboard) and she weighs about 65kg I think.

If your wife loves going fast and has no trouble gybing, then a smaller board would feel better.

I'm not sure the volume/weight ratio is constant thru different weights of riders thou, because at speed planning area is the issue, not volume.
And volume varies with the square of area.
So theoretically, (and this is only theory, somebody may else may know for sure),
if you're wife is half your weight, at speed she needs half the planning area not half the volume, which means she'd be on more of a sinker than you are, unless the board is proportionally thicker.

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Originally posted by Zed

Yeah it's not just dependant on weight, there's height, how well the weight is distributed etc etc So I'll need some pictures of your wife in order for me to give you a more in-depth answer.

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I've heard that one before

Not having tried any of the latest generation boards, certainly nothing below 75L, she'll have to give them a try and see how comfortable they are. It just seemed strange that relatively speaking she has never really sailed a sinker so I have always thought she has been on too big a board; saying that the conditions have probably never been too big for the 84L she has used.

This might sound silly but have you looked at the ProKids range from Starboard? They have Wave boards as small as 50 liters. They are marketed as "High performance boards for windsurfers under 55kg".

I think Starboard also used to make boards with low volume specifically for women. Can' remember what name they where sold under.

I might be wrong but I think Stone is shaping quite a few of the Starboards these days.

The 50/55L starboard boards certainly look like they are worth a try although I think 62L may be a better size, and a max sail size of 4.7m seems rather small when I am comparing myself on a 95L board with a 6m sail.

It will definitely be worth a go if we can find any at a demo day.

I don't know what qualifies as intermediate nowadays but she is blasting around and pulling off 50% of her carve gybes (although not planing out). The biggest problem with a demo is probably going to be the fact that she hasn't really had to deal with that first time on a "short board" where you sink to your knees until the board is moving; I seem to remember a couple of days of not going very far until the technique improved.