Thanks very much for the detailed responses and feedback!yeah, basically. Stringered should be stiffer, and less likely to snap. More flex/spring with stringerless. Never tried the PC, but I believe they can add more strips for stiffness or heavier rider. Personally, I like the SL-C for small-average wave boars in SoCal. I have had a couple 2nd-hand stringered XTRs and they were good too, but kinda wished they were stringerless.