Unibrow critique

[RobinL]

Wow. Glowing praise.
I was almost dead set on getting a CC 61 or Sub 60 but now rethinking the 60 unibrow to set between my dom and maybe a mindriver to replace my alt.

[buzzy]

Ok, I picked up the Unibrow this morning. 6'4" x 20.25" x 2.75" with me @90kg give or take. The waves were 3-5 foot today with Bondi *just* handling it. Definitely a Q5 day. Anyway, it was after my surf I picked up the new board.

Tail pad is now whacked on, leggy attached, fins in (starting with K3's) - the board may get a run depending on conditions tomorrow.

The board itself looks great. Very organic albeit with a big concave and a thick centre. In an ideal world i'd maybe prefer a touch extra width and a touch less thickness but that's just on feel - i havent surfed it yet. I just have a strong inkling it'll suit my style.

[RobinL]

Can't wait to hear yor review buzzy!

I'm really interested in how pivotal the board is.
Love my Dom but want something that will surf head high waves predictably, but will allow me to make directional changes more easily.
Narrowed it down to unibrow or sub scorcher both in 60.
Test riding the sub next week but having loved the smooth turns of the Dom I am drawn to the potential of the unibrow as a smooth but still pivotal alternative.

[luismx]

For those of you having ridden the UB and a hellfire, which would you say is more highperformance? I seem to get the impression that the UB is just a "slightly" refined dominator...

[FW - Fan]

Can't wait to hear yor review buzzy!

I'm really interested in how pivotal the board is.
Love my Dom but want something that will surf head high waves predictably, but will allow me to make directional changes more easily.
Narrowed it down to unibrow or sub scorcher both in 60.
Test riding the sub next week but having loved the smooth turns of the Dom I am drawn to the potential of the unibrow as a smooth but still pivotal alternative.

Havent surfed a UB but have felt it up a fair bit. I have a 6'0 Sub but and love it...it has far more range than you think. I have surfed it in well overhead several times and it was fine. Not the board I would have taken out in the first instance but both those times when I got there the swell was way bigger than I thought . I am really impressed with that board.

[buzzy]

Ride report #1.

Ok, the surf was atrocious this morning. Big, solid, short period crossed up windswell. 3-4 foot (ie up to 1.5x, very occasionally 2x overhead). To give you an idea of push, one hold down I was under do long I felt I was about to breathe a lung full of water. To give you an idea of bad, at 7am at Bondi beach in Sydney I was the only surfer in the water. By 7.45am there were maybe 8. Most of them came in not long thereafter.

So, the surf was not good at all. Not good surf to test the board in at all. And probably just a touch above the range the board will perform best in. Even then its just too early to say.

Frankly, there's not much I can say after Ride #1. I caught waves. Mostly my feet were in the wrong place. I did turns backhand and forehand. One forehand carve ended in a vertical hit off the foam ball, do that's a positive. My feet were slightly out on that turn. A couple of decent backhand cuttys aside there just weren't actual waves with a nice whack able face to surf.

Next ride will be Tuesday morning, conditions dependent. Further ride report to follow.

[Piha Local]

Hi luismx, neither board is truly high-performance. They both have a lot of area under your back foot which make them harder to get up on rail when carving off the flats at the bottom of a fast, powerful wave. This hybrid config also means power snaps in the pocket will often have too much speed and lift to control easily. The upside will be awesome speed and manouverability [sp] in the waves most of us surf most of the time. I think the Unibrow is a little more hi/per than the Hellfire, size for size. Even tho it has slightly more volume, it feels narrower and more refined and produces less lift for same wave, same speed. I suspect the board-compare [when it comes!] will show less planing area overall. It is a very different feel to the Dom tho, much more sensitive rails, much narrower nose, more overall rocker. Same if not higher top speed but you have to work harder to achieve it.

[FW - Fan]

Ride report #1.

Ok, the surf was atrocious this morning. Big, solid, short period crossed up windswell. 3-4 foot (ie up to 1.5x, very occasionally 2x overhead). To give you an idea of push, one hold down I was under do long I felt I was about to breathe a lung full of water. To give you an idea of bad, at 7am at Bondi beach in Sydney I was the only surfer in the water. By 7.45am there were maybe 8. Most of them came in not long thereafter.

So, the surf was not good at all. Not good surf to test the board in at all. And probably just a touch above the range the board will perform best in. Even then its just too early to say.

Frankly, there's not much I can say after Ride #1. I caught waves. Mostly my feet were in the wrong place. I did turns backhand and forehand. One forehand carve ended in a vertical hit off the foam ball, do that's a positive. My feet were slightly out on that turn. A couple of decent backhand cuttys aside there just weren't actual waves with a nice whack able face to surf.

Next ride will be Tuesday morning, conditions dependent. Further ride report to follow.

Bondi definitely facing the wrong way for this wind...I had a nice little surf at one of my favs....still the occasional bomb coming through which was good. I got a couple of hold downs yesterday I would rather forget...just got to think of something nice when under water...however...when I surfaced yesterday after being held down twice in a row and saw about 8 foot of white water rumbling towards me it was hard to think of anything other than ...this is not going to be nice. lol Makes you feel alive when you finally get out the back.

[buzzy]

Yeah, I left home pre dawn and picked the beach on guesswork the night before. I have the in-laws visiting and a late morning swimming lesson for my daughter so had to make the call and just surf whatever was there. When I saw the conditions on NE facing beaches on web cams when i got home I wasn't a happy camper!

[luismx]

thanks piha. The reason i ask all of this is because im currently riding a dom 6.4 and i believe its time to push it further. i want my surfing to progress a tad more, becoming more vertical and snappy. the dom is a great board but after using it so often, and getting to know it more, ive reached the point where i literally "feel" its limitations. the race is on between the HF and UB. i still want my next one to grovel a bit, but in the end, im looking for the next step. was also thinking alternator, but im currently sold on quads so....

hope this makes sense -.-

p.s. how much does volume relative to length and width affect performance? looking at the 6.1UB and the 6.2HF. The hellfire has less volume but more width. the UB thinner, shorter but more volume. which one should i expect to go vertical easier? which one will take me further? the UB looks like it likes quality waves more than anything else....