9'6" Walden "Magic Model" epoxy longboard

General Discussion
1

hey guys i am looking at buying a 9'6" Walden "Magic Model" epoxy longboard 2nd hand. Have any of you guys ridden of have one, I am interested in some feed back on them before i do the deal.

 I am looking for a board to replace my last noserider something alittle easier to throw around on the wave  than my old-school log but that still noserides nice. i am 90kg so 9'6 should be about right board says its got about 86lt volume.

so how have you guys found the board to ride good points and bad

cheers again

 

antony

2

I love this board.  I got it 2nd hand from Lockedin (swaylocks poster), he's ridden it much more than me, in a much wider variety of surf.  I've only had it since summer, but have really come to enjoy surfing it.  It catches waves great, turns easily for a longboard, and is great fun to ride.

I'm not really a longboarder per se, so take that into consideration when I say I paddled it out at SLO into some overhead grinding surf, and just got hammered.  I couldn't handle all that length (9'6") on the ledgy, vertical takeoffs.  I'm sure a good longboarder could, but I am much more comfortable on a 6-8 to 7-4 length board for those conditions.  The Walden was the only board I took that trip, so I had to paddle out, but didn't get any rides that day, just some epic wipeouts LOL.

But I've had it in good surf up to 6', Topanga, Malibu and area, South Jetty, C-st. Vta. and Stables, and it was a blast, fun fast and maneuverable.

Mine weighs 20 lbs., as it was rebuilt after being broken in two.  This is the GSI version, which is a veneer over eps I think.  The foam has big granules.  The epoxy finish is brittle, and "chips" unlike any other board I've ever had.  But the composite veneer itself is very strong, it takes a lot to ding it to the point it would take in water.  It is stringerless, which may have contributed to its breaking in two.  It was rebuilt with wood, so its a lot stiffer now. 

There's a youtube video on it, and it surfs just like it shows in the video. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbcMDkmFvM8

Like I say, Lockedin knows more about it than me, I'm sure he's a much better longboarder than I am!  Oh yeah, and I'm not a noserider, either.  I mean I do walk the board, and ride forward when trimming sometimes, but not a hang ten kinda surfer.  Hope this helps.

3

A friend of mine has one, eps core with glass epoxy skins, manufactured by a mass production company, bought new last Spring, he likes it a lot, it gets deck pressure dings easily, seems durable to breaking,  the owner likes it a lot. I rode a few lame take offs with it and named it "easy rider".  Boardworks has been making them for a long time also by their build method, the early Boardworks  method was poor but has been corrected in recent years, I don't know how to recognize the older poor models from the newer good models.

4

Hi Twisted,

As Huck mentioned, that was my board which snapped. To be fair, I snapped it in 2XOH+ waves / 18 - 20 sec period.

I really liked the board, very high performance, but still nose rides well. My only complaint is that they’re a little more “corky” than my other 9’6" Magic Models were (I’ve had 4). It was only a problem in larger, more powerful waves. That was what caused the spinout the night it snapped - too much lift / corky on the bottom turn, spun out when I tried to bury the rail too far.

 

Hope that helps!

5

thanks guys i pretty sure this one i am looking at is the   "GSI-P3 " model looks much like the one you have huck with out the nice wood part in the middle.

do you guys know if the glassing is much the same as surf-tec or tuf-light or is it not as good?

cheers antony 

6

Yes, that looks like the same one.  The wood was added as part of the rebuild after it broke in two.  The glass was good - never had a surftech or tufflite, but it was fine.  Its not just regular glass, its a composite veneer, of which glass is a part.  Not a Cooper by any means, but adequate.  I talked to a guy at Malibu riding one, and he just loved it too.  They are good boards, I don't think you'd be disappointed.

7

I had one from boardworks, it surfed well off the tail but I couldn’t noseride it at all. My current HP board McTavish fireball is far superior in every way