The article mainly discusses the advantage for racing, and apparently in merry old England they still have an active racing scene. That's really not a good basis for going with a longboard in these parts, since there is only one local race and not that many within driving distance. Chris V. does actively participate in the regional races, so I'm not saying it can't be done, but does take some driving. Also - everything said in the article would also apply to lots of 30 year old longboards. It doesn't have to be one of the new models that cost a ton of money.

Having said all that - I've almost always had a race longboard, or something very close (~12 foot, 200 liters or more), and the times I didn't I regretted it sooner or later. A few of the things left out of that article are the fact that you can get a perfectly good (cosmetics aside) longboard for very little money compared to most other boards. You get a lot of sailing on days when it otherwise wouldn't be worth it to go to the lake (or wherever.) A good longboard can turn a day that would really suck (sitting around waiting for wind) into a really good day. Another key point is that a lot of times just having the longboard with me gets me out to the lake when you otherwsie wouldn't go and more often than not, I'm glad a I came. One thing to keep in the back of one's mind is windsurfing was very popular when it was a longboarding sport, and once it became mainly a shortboard sport its popularity has been on a fairly steady decline (with a few dips and rises), even though gear has gotten a lot better .

I won't go on and on, because this ground has already been covered 100 times before. Longboards are not for everyone. They lack the sure excitement of true shortboarding, and a lot of people just don't want to deal with 12 foot long, 30 lb monster. Some of this is also true of formula type boards, but they emphasize planing more than subplaning, and are not that interesting to sail if you can't plane.

Good review of the current offerings. More than one realizes.

http://www.speedsurfingblog.com/2015/08/windsurfing-raceboards-2015.html

btw, there's a "new" Techno 293 on the Nashville CL if anyone is interested, an Equipe II XR for cheap in Tampa and pricey one in Charlotte.