Ilford Delta 100 and Delta 400 Pro would be my second choice. You make me feel much better. I just shot a bunch of Delta 400 Pro for the first time and found that it is very finniky for exposure and development. So settled on 10.5 minutes. I'm glad to hear that you had similar experiences.
Modern surfers use PC boards.
The Pro version is different only in that it has a matte retouching surface on the back of the film. The film is not heavily promoted like the newer ones, but it's very dependable, and can be pushed to about ISO 320 in Accufine developer if accidentally underexposed. Or to put it differently, if a high-quality but sorta nondescript image is what's desired, Delta 400 will do fine imho. I'd speculate, and I really don't mean to be condescending or anything of that sort, that if your print blacks are weak you're either underexposing or underdeveloping the film. Look at the book.