well first things first, longboard season never ends.
your prefrences seem similar to mine- something you can cruise and carve around and be able to have total control of the board, and also be able to bomb the occasional smaller hill.
if you're looking into Loaded Boards, take a gander at the pintail. I can't rave enough about the board, but you might be able to find some other threads where i have gone off about them. it is the best longboard i have ever ridden out of about 4 sector 9's, 2 landyacht's (sp?), and a few other lesser known brands. The vanguard is a good choice also, but the pintail is just perfect for me and what i want to do, so im glad i didn't go bigger and get the vanguard.
as for landyachtz, they are very nice boards, however, a lot of them are very specialized and only seem to excel in one area. while this might not be true for all their boards, the two i rode were excellent for their respective duty, but as an all around board they weren't that great. my pintail on the other hand allows me to do anything i want with it. there have been days when i just cruise by myself and have logged in close to 25 miles, but there's also times i just wanna carve up parking lots or maybe play around with some sliding.
unless you absolutely don't want a pintail, i would def look into the loaded pintail or even the Arbor pintail or hybrid.
I might be able to help more, but you can always e-mail each company (the people are usually always eager to respond and can provide very valuable information) and i'd also check out
www.silverfishlongboarding.com if you haven't already.
have fun, and feel free to ask me any questions