WindSupping the Sunova Surf and Flow

A couple of days ago I showed up at our usual windsurfing beach at Kanaha, and found unusually light wind and a few fun tiny hip high waves out on the reef. All the other windsurfers were moping because there was not enough wind at about 10-15 to take out our usual high wind gear. A friend had a Sunova Surf 9'5" in his car that he had rented for SUP surfing, so I borrowed the board, put my 5.3 sail with an uphaul on it (normally on Maui uphauls are never used), and headed out to the waves. The board sailed easy in the light winds. I caught a couple of knee to hip high waves, and the board felt like a very loose flowing longboard; much easier to turn with a sail on it than many SUPs that I have sailed. When the wind picked up to about 15 to 18, the board popped onto a plane easily and I planed back and forth for a few runs before going to my usual small windsurf gear. The Surf was not quite as nice to plane on as a dedicated windsurf board with footstraps and a larger fin, but plenty of fun. I think that it really helped that the board was set up with a 2+1 fin set up, so the center fin being probably about 7" really helped to get the board planing.
My friend later graduated down to the Sunova Flow 9'2" for surfing, and today the wind was light again, so he took that board out with a 5.9 sail. He is just learning to jibe a short board and has only made a few up to this point. On the Flow, he nailed 24 jibes today; a very happy camper.

I have windsupped a number of different SUPs in light winds and surf, including the 8'7" Sunova Flow, 8'10" Sunova Speeed, 8'11" Fanatic AllWave, 9' Tabou Supasurf, 9'8" JP Fusion, and 9'8" Starboard Extremist, and my wife sails her 7'11" Fanatic AllWave.
Here is what I have found works best for me; 1. light wind at 5-14 in the non-planing and uphauling range is best for many SUPs since they have so much rocker that they really resist planing and create a lot of work for the sailor from the drag if there is enough power to try and make them plane. I usually have the most fun just schlogging out, and then pumping onto the waves. 2. if you are wavesailing, sails in the 5.0 to 5.4 range seem to work best since you usually do not want too much sail power on the wave, just enough sail to pump onto it. Plus smaller sails are way easier and quicker to uphaul if you are down in the surf. 3. If there is no surf, light wind on a SUP is fantastic for practicing light wind freestyle moves. No matter how good you are, this is a hoot and will make you a better sailor in all conditions.
There are a few SUPs that will plane pretty well, which is why I was impressed with the Sunova Surf compared to the others I have tried, and a few even have footstrap inserts like the old Starboard Extremists that I have. I don't use footstraps on SUPs because the get in the way doing light wind freestyle, and walking around on the board when surfing. If there is enough wind to plane and get into footstraps, or even waterstart in the surf, I would much rather be on a dedicated windsurf board.