Thanks for the feedback aruka, oeste and tedshred. I have been thinking the stringered 8.0 might be a bit stiff/heavy. However, Shey and Javier have both pushed me towards stringered 8.0, and the added durability sounds nice. SL-CK is probably ideal, but not sure I can justify adding on another $100 per board.
Shey did mention I could try a stringered 8.C with an added patch to the deck tail area. Has anyone tried this? I have a SL-CK red CI fever and I had frontsidegrabs stringered 8.C LB. I find the SL-CK red a little too flexy and light. The stringered 8.c feels pretty good , but frontsidegrab had an extra patch added to the tail because it got pretty pushed in.