Advice on correct board

Hi Millpond. I'm 82kg .. windsurfed quite a bit many years ago and started back into it last season. I've just gone from 165l JP Explorer to a 135l Patrik F-ride and it's a good change. I would have preferred 125l but a chance to trade to the 135 came up so I took it - and I'm glad I did because not only is it smooth on chop, and gybes nicely (the few times I've managed it) but it's also easy to tack (even if a bit of standing time is necessary) and uphaul. It's also easy to waterstart. Like your X-cite it also has a rough deck but this is great for grip. Until you can waterstart .. or if the wind is light .. to save your knees when needing to uphaul you could try getting onto your board from the downwind side - just have the board behind you, one hand on the mast (or on the board close to the mast foot), the other on the board and lift up into initially sitting - then get hold of the uphaul and stand up. Kind of ungainly but works for me.

Three things I remember cracked water starting for me:

1) learning rig handling first - there's a simple drill you can do standing in shallow still water moving the board from upwind in one side, swinging it downwind, flipping the rig and then swinging it upwind on the new side. (Jem Hall has a video on it.) Gives you the skills to power/depower the sail which are essential so you can work out what to do with the lower half of your body.

2) Guy Cribb's "moon walk" was the move that unlocked it for me, because I realised I'd been trying to leap up onto the board, instead of pulling the board tail towards me with my heel. Made the whole process much less exhausting.

3) practised beach starts (shallow water starts) until I was bored witless practising putting the first two steps together.

I also found an impact vest helpful in feeling safe learning water starting when going out into the bay in the first year.