This is currently I think a fact of downwind it is bloody difficult and a weekend warrior is going to be
very disappointed if they expect it to be easy regardless of what they buy (other than a motor 
)
I have the same general impression, and I’m not even sure that the 25" would be more stable in the conditions that ultimately are all that matter - bumpy offshore. I don’t quite see how length comes into the stability but I definitely felt the 23" board harder work to balance than the 20" of roughly equal volume. All of this uncertainty explains why the weekend warrior is going to be disappointed - No easy answers…