Kitesurfing Surfboard advice

my opinion-if that is the sort of board you are after check out the 5'8 slingshot celeritus. heaps of fun in small to medium waves.
and yes you can paddle it . i've ridden it in waves well over head and it handled fine. i see your in wa so your welcome to have a crack on mine anytime.
its the best board i have ridden to date.

What he said ^-save the dollars and get a used surfboard-and if you want straps-very easy to retro fit to a surfboard.

There's some truth to that, however, a lot of boards designed only for surfing will snap a lot easier than the heavily glassed ones made specifically for kiting. If you ride a standard 6/8 oz glassed surfboard on a kite it's only a matter of time before you snap it--else you aren't kiting very hard!

I've been riding a Slingshot SST for about three years now and it's virtually indestructible. Along the way, I've destroyed a few others that weren't kite-specific--even epoxy ones. So, yes the standard surfboards are cheaper but they do have a downside.

I also prefer the way the heavier boards sit in the water. Lighter boards tend to sit high in the water and skip along the surface and spin out easier on hard turns. But, it's like with most other things, a lot of it is just personal preference and what you get used to.

Firewire have just released some kite specific boards that are light and tougth and should be ok to padle in as well, or if you have around $1200 check out the fone range of bambo boards they are light and tougth the whole range will handle kite and padle surfing. Or check out the range of SS boards as ben willson rides his kite surf board but they do take some comitment to paddle them in.

I was recently looking for a new board that I could kite strapless and paddle surf on.
I tried the 5'8" SS celeritas and quite liked it, it may suit but for me at 90kg and not very paddle fit, I think it would be a mission to paddle in on. I may have even bought one but there was none available for a few weeks when I enquired a couple of weeks ago.
Also tried the 6'4" Converse as I thought it may be a good board for paddling in as well as kiting. I only tried kiting it and it was great but same deal none available for a few weeks at the time. (I only tried Airborne, AKS or Windforce may have one)
I ended up getting one of the new 6'2" Firewire kitesurfboards, it looks sweet, but I haven't had the chance to try it yet.

I have just listed a board (that I learned to kite/surf on) for sale today, it has quite a bit of volume and a full deck grip so made learning to gybe easy as.
It is good for paddling in on smaller Perth type waves but not to flash on bigger faster waves.
Check it out here it may suit you. www.seabreeze.com.au/Classifieds/Kitesurfing/Boards/~rylwg/2008-M10-The-Hogfish-6-2.aspx?search=gb7cSR4J7TRgoIEXPFqQ0Q%3d%3d

Yep must admit the 6'4" 2010 Converse impressed me, I had already pretty much decided on the Firewire when I demoed the Converse, but was impressed and I probably would have bought one if they had one in stock.
Hope the Firewire is as good.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question, it was very helpful in making a decision.

As I already have a pretty exhaustive surfing quiver, and before getting the missus pissed off at me (!again!) before buying another boy toy, I needed to have something specific to justify the expense ;-) I played for couple of days with both my mini gun and fishtail, enough to say I really enjoyed it more than bumping and jumping (although will still be keeping doing both). Strapless is my way to go, hence no need for a specific kite surf board... HOWEVER...

Matt from Airborne lent me his chop top 2 days ago. I had a play for a solid 2 hours and it was a different feeling from my other surf boards. I specially liked the upwind ability as well as the turning on a dime feeling, and not to mention a very stable riding in the chop (guess where the name comes from) making it THE board for the Perth afternoon choppy sea breeze conditions...

The shape is very different than what I am used to, hence the reason why it felt so different.

It took me a solid day to think about all of your posts, the fun I had with the choptop and the $$$ I had to spend to satisfy this new craving if mine (and not to mention missus not understanding the need for another boy toy in the garage).

I went for the choptop.

Thank Matt (Airborne) for lending it to me (and the others offering for me to try your boards) as well as the riding advice, I am now enjoying the choptop strapless jibes and surfing the waves!

Enjoy the good winds and see you out there!
Cheers