Universal Report

having given the Universal a thorough testing I now feel ready to report back.

Built at the beginning of August, since then it has been my everyday board. I've ridden it in knee high peelers, a wide range of beach breaks, a lumpy double over head reef and a couple of very hollow and challenging, backhand, head and a half reef breaks. The Universal has proved to be a reliable and easy to ride board. with plenty of glide, speed and wave catching ability. It feels similar to a full traditional hull but is much easier to ride and doesn't require the usual adjustment that you would expect with a hull. It projects well off the bottom and will draw a beautiful line on a wave allowing you to put yourself in positions on the face that other boards would struggle with. It carves some great arcs and at 7'9” it's even long enough for me to cross step to a cheater five. I've been pleasantly surprised by how well it handles powerful surf. As soon as the rail engages the board feels locked in and stable but still carves smoothly off the rail.

In smaller, weaker waves it cruises along, rolling turns from rail to rail. It feels Lively, natural and intuitive and it's planing speed matches the wave speed well. As the waves steepens or speeds up the board will accelerate to match it. It sounds obvious but not many boards do it well.

The only time that it has felt a bit of a handful, but not unmanageable was in lumpy double overhead waves with flat faces. I found that I had a lot of speed but no wall to engage the rail in. the board did feel a little unstable until I ran it out on to the flats and lost a little speed. I was then able to get an edge in and start carving turns.

In hollow powerful waves up to head and a half the board feels great. surprisingly solid for a single fin and because of the long flex fin, when it does slide it's very controlled and regains it's hold gently rather than grabbing as some boards do. It feels really comfortable in the barrel and has a very fine response to small changes in line or weight distribution. The take off feels surprisingly comfortable despite the length and low nose rocker.

I recently lent it to a friend for a couple of waves, when he paddle back out to return it I could see his grin from 50m away, there wasn't much more that needed to be said. 

what has really surprised me is how well this board has performed in such a wide range of conditions. The Universal is proving to be one of the best single fins that I have ridden and probably the most useful, versatile and fun mid-length.  

more info to follow here: http://empiresurfboards.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/universal