Greetings and welcome to the forum.
It sort of depends on what you weigh, but, in Utah a 140-150 ltr board is premium for most of the conditions we
experience(more 6-8M sails).
If you have a solid water start then you'll eventually be wanting 2 boards at least.
Any semi modern 140 ltr board (maybe even 120 ltrs) would carry 5-7M sails, but Starboard makes a board called the Carve
in the 140 ltr range, that is pretty swiss army knife. The Western States Starboard rep lives here in Salt Lake, and is "president" of the windsurfing part of the UWA (Josh Shirley). You could PM him here, and he'll likely respond.
If you weigh 190lbs or better, can waterstart, use footstraps, and harness, then a modern 140 ltr board with 2
different fin sizes should get you the 5.0 to 9.0 range.
If you're less than 190, say 170ish, then a 120 ltr modern board should get you that same range.
I must warn you, eventually you'll be wanting something more in the 90 ltr range for 5.0 on down, but again this depends on
your level of proficiency.
I weigh 180 lbs, and for sailing here in Utah, I have a 150 ltr Angulo Sumo, which is good for 6-10M sails, then I have
an RRD Twin Tip 115 ltr board which I ride from 5.5 to 6.5, and then I have a 75 ltr custom board which I ride from 5.5
down to 3.7. In Hood River, I have a 100 ltr board I ride with a 6.7. From 5.7 to 3.7 I ride an 2015 Open Ocean 80 ltr board,
and from solid 4.7 down to 3.2 I have a 70 ltr custom Hi-Tech. I am a pretty proficient windsurfer with better than 30
years experience.
Describe your abilities, physique, current gear, and price range you want to spend for new gear, a little more, and I can
narrow this down somewhat for you.
-Craig
p.s. the used board market can be a great value
jgerke wrote:I started windsurfing a few years ago and got to the point I could do some water starts. I need some advice on gear. I would like to get a fairly high volume stable board that could handle a sail range from about a 5.0 - 7.0. Does such a board exist? The boards I have seen in the 140 - 150ish volume range start at about a 6.0 sail. If I can water start should I get something with a little less volume? I still need a stable floaty board. I looked into the possibility of kiteboarding and even took a lesson while on vacation but the kites seem like a real pain cause you need so much room and need help launching and landing the kite. I almost took out some people on the beach with the trainer kite.