JL Worldwide review 4 months in

Just wanted to give a quick update on this Jimmy Lewis Worldwide since I'm about 4 months in now, and have surfed it 1-2 times a week (3-4h sessions). Hopefully helpful for folks considering this board or one like it. I can't be that helpful comparing to other 8' boards, have surfed 5 other boards this year but this is the only 8 footer.

Stability - this is 110L (newer ones are 112L I think but guessing that's within margin of error). I'm down to about 82kg, but wear a 5/4 suit w/ booties, so GF probably 1.25-1.3. This board feels really solid now. I initially has some anxiety each session that it would get too rough and I wouldn't be able to stand, but that's gone. I'm not out in crazy conditions, but often in light/moderate chop and rip currents and board feels fine. Yesterday my friend on a 9'5" ~145L Naish Hokua got on my board, in glassy conditions behind a jetty, and was able to catch waves. Stand between sets, don't need to paddle around to be stable.

Glide/catching waves - I can't catch waves super early like I could on friend's Naish Hokua or Nalu, but it's not that different than the 9'4" Rogue Shuffle I was on earlier. I can still get in early'ish, but it's more technical, need to get low, slide one foot forward towards nose, etc. as Colas helped me figure out in his posts. Alternatively I can just catch waves later with no technical difficulty. I do fall more catching waves I assume cause of the pointy nose. I usually paddle back about 1 km up the beach at end of session, against our N wind, feels fine.

Maneuverability - Love this board. It's so light and easy to turn. My two surf buddies who are more longboard style surfers both want this board now after trying it. This board made pumping and top turns feel intuitive for me, when I was having trouble figuring them out in my head.

Rails - This board has boxy rails in the middle. I kept having experiences where I would catch my best wave of the day and then slip out on the bottom turn. This is part of the reason why I switched from the stock quads to Quobbas thruster, which really like. I got really good about getting foot back to tail, but it kept happening. I thought I might want a second board for steeper waves, and I still might, but I largely solved this issue by focusing more on my foot positioning. I just make sure my toe right on the edge of the rail. It's crazy how much this transforms the board and I knew I should do this, but if you're surfing by feel in mushy waves your feet can start to do other stuff. I surfed a 'pro' shape board with thin rails but that was too big, 130L. This actually made me appreciate the boxier rails of the WW and how forgiving they are. But for advanced surfers doing rail turn cutbacks and stuff like that maybe these are a dealbreaker...

Other - the deck grip is falling apart and I have chips on the rails/tail. The latter are my fault, but the deck grip sucks.

Overall, I really love this board, it's really helped me progress and I have a blast on it in a wide range of conditions.

I nerd out on boards so of course I'm already thinking about what's next. It'd be fun to try a 100L board and/or something with more thinned out rails to see how those compare.

Yeah, WW's rip in the right hands / conditions. I preferred mine as a thruster over quad too. Agree that the JL deckpads are not the best. Mine was quite slippery...

I moved mine on cos I thought it felt corky when standing. I had a 8'9" Carbon. On a wave though, it ripped - probably better than any board i've had since.

Since the WW, I've had a Sunova Creek, a Smik Spitfire, a Sunova Speed, an ECS wideboy and now an Atlantis Vex.

I've been told that the Superfrank basically replaces the WW now. Budget allowing, I actually think a Superfrank and a Stun Gun would make a sick quiver.