The way you define 'high performance' the Kona One certainly fits.
I've had raw beginners up on it and having fun, and guys who are much
better than me (front/backloops, shove-its, vulcans, willy skippers
etc) who thought it was a blast. It certainly keeps me interested up
to about 20 knots, though I've sailed it with a 4.5 and a 5.0 to about
30 knots. A shortboard is more fun in those conditions, but the Kona
goes through rough chop amazingly smoothly; better than most of the
big freerides. I think in size it is about as long as the RRD
Longrider (another contender, that planes up earlier than the Kona).
The Kona could certainly take you from your aggressive beginner level
through to waterstarting, straps and harness, carve jibes, high-speed
blasting, etc. All the skills would be immediately transferable to a
much smaller board; you'd probably be able to jump to a 110 -120 litre
second board (if you really have these skills on the Kona, even a
sub-100 litre) and skip the 130-180 litre size range. These smaller
boards will knock your socks off; they accelerate so much faster than
the Kona (though their top-end speed is probably about the same).
They are less forgiving of less-than-perfect technique for carve jibes
than the Kona. They certainly jump a whole lot better! Thats for
next year probably anyway!
You probably don't want to buy a real high performance longboard, like
the Exocet Warp 280 or the Starboard equivalent. They are very
technical to tune and sail and won't carve a turn as nicely as the
Kona One or similar. Great for racing, though!
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