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
