hi rob
i also have not seen the rio apart from on the web, but it does look
like a nice board
and i agree that the small would seem to me to be the model to get,
especially if in
a previous thread you were looking at an ititial sail size of 6.5 or
7.0
i do however have a lot of experience on the kona, having owned one
for the last
year and a half as my only board, using sails from 6.2 to 9.0. i have
actually just sold it
and replaced it with 3 boards, a 113L freeride, Go170 and F2race
longboard.
here are my pros and cons
pros:
1. argueably the most versatile board ever made, ( i need 3 board to
cover it's range)
2. comfortable in 6.0 to 9.0+ conditions
3. surprisingly fast when well powered
4. the master at turning a crap session into a good session
cons
1. being good at everything means it's not great at anything
2. slow to plane in marginal winds, slow to accelerate....not for the
weekend racer
3. big and heavy to manouvre on land, (however the size disappears
once on the water)
personally, the decider for me to sell the kona was my local
conditions. i spend a majority of my sailing time on a big sail, in
my case a 9.0, and the marginal planing ability of the kona was just
not satisfactory for me. i'd be grunting along
at a fast slog just below the planing threshold while my mates on
wider boards would be zipping past me on smaller sails.
i personally think the kona suits people who would ordinarily use
smaller sails...people who don't want to use
anything bigger than say a 7.5 but want to get more sailing
time...here the kona would be great at extending TOW.
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