I have to agree with Balsa. That is a poor design concept. If your good you can surf almost anything and make it look good. Walden and Rex are just trying to be revolutionary and failing at it…miserably.
Yeah there’s a big difference between just making something weird without thinking it through in the vain hope that it will get lucky and work, compared with carefully working on a concept derived from first principles which just happens to look unusual as a by product of it being functional without reference to fashion
They appear to have the ‘cart before the horse’ in their design strategy, which isn’t surprising because most of what they make is just standard fare stuff which everyone else is doing. . . like they obviously are NOT free thinkers… . … pages of the same old mals, then one with the corners cut off … no great hidden design inspiration there.
When you pick up a Walden surfboard and hold it in your hand you will discover that there’s much more going on than meets the eye. I agree with the statements made by Kendall and Oneula. I have never meet Mr. Walden. I have a friend who I surf with in Carlsbad who is friends with Steve Walden. Through my friend I have been able to check out many ,many Walden surfboards. Some proto types. Always stoked when I’m repairing a board and the board is signed by the man! The bottom contours on Walden surfboards are very complex. Rocker,concave,double concave,chim rails.
Sure …the stealth is different…
I’m truly inspired by Walden surfboards. Hope you are too!
I have to agree with Balsa. That is a poor design concept. If your good you can surf almost anything and make it look good. Walden and Rex are just trying to be revolutionary and failing at it…miserably.
Yeah there’s a big difference between just making something weird without thinking it through in the vain hope that it will get lucky and work, compared with carefully working on a concept derived from first principles which just happens to look unusual as a by product of it being functional without reference to fashion
In other words: a radical departure from conventional design (or design elements) which elicits a high degree of skepticism from experienced surfers and shapers is worthy of serious discussion and analysis only when it is, um, yours? You disappoint me - I expected more from someone who has himself regularly been trashed for unconventional thinking than mere mob mentality piling on. Have you been channeling those two gentlemen as a foundation for your assessment of how much “thinking through” was involved, or do you conclude that because they didn’t arrive at the same answer as you the process was flawed by definition? BTW there have already been ample testimonials in this thread that for both design concepts, the ‘“vain” hope that it will … work’ has been fulfilled.
Bodyboards and surfboards are vastly different vehicles. The “skimming” effect acheived by bodyboards with all their hard edges has a purpose… spinning, making up for all those dragging body parts… In my mind, surfboards are not supposed to “skim.” Fins, for example, are there to help leverage forces beneath the board. To some degree, my theory is, surfboards need a great deal of contact with the water. Displacement hull-type shapes are a good example. Curves and soft edges help achieve that smooth, flowing interaction with the water. Straight lines and hard edges actually create protuberances.
It might be, at least for me, more of a challenge to ride that design well than a design that helps me surf better.
Don’t get hurt feelings. I know it probably works, I just think anything that works can be made to look decent too. The shape of those openings just does not have to be that ugly.
Please don’t tell your friend’s friends. I don’t want to be beat up by Manta Men.
I don’t get this forum at all. Its like clock work. Someone makes a new thread and other people give their opinion. THIS IS NOT A COURT ROOM! STOP DEFENDING. Tomblock and Kendall are clearly defense lawyers of some sort. Why are you guys defending something that isn’t yours?? Chill dudes.
PS: It has nothing to do with free thinking. I’m freely thinking that I don’t like waldens design on this particular board. Have you ridden it? Let me know if it rides easy when you do.
Everybody has opinions bro, like you! Opinions are supposed to be like something or another…everybody has one etc…
But everybody here has dozens, hundreds! And many people are actually married to every one of theirs, which is kinda funny and kinda irritating to watch sometimes. But… it’s a forum.
Toothpaste… I have a toothache right now… actually one of my wisdom teeth is stabbing me in the gum I think…only had two wisdom teeth in me when I was born… the top ones. One’s killing me right now. It’s not pointed the way it’s supposed to be. May end up with just one. Or none. Then I can surf in peace.
You know you should saw the ends off that thing at a minimum though. Public service. You’re scar(r)ing the children!
Of course it’s worthy of serious discussion, that’s what I am doing, seriously discussing it !
The reasons why I said that there`wasn’t too much thought behind the ‘stealth’ design are:
That it’s obviously just lifted from the ‘stealth’ aircraft. … (which has poor aerodynamics)
There’s no explanation for the design.
It’s a really bad design, water hates flowing around corners !
Testimonials that the design ‘works’ are unimpressive, of course the thing is going to float and surf to a degree but it would certailnly go better without those corners
Straight and parallel outlines have been used for centuries and do have design pluses. Simmons used parallel straight outlines almost exclusively. Check out the old Hawaiian finless boards.
I made a finless longboard with straight but not parallel rails and found that once the rails were engaged, the board was very stable, held a nice high line and was as fast as any curvy outline I had ridden. The board tended to be a bit tracky but that was pretty amazing for something with no fins. The weirdest thing was that the board did not seem to react much to walking around from nose to tail once the rail was engaged.
The sharp angled tail would be prefect to help break the track and give you a well defined sweet spot for turning. The sharp angles in the nose look “catchy” but could be fixed with rocker.
Bottom line; straight line makes a stable rail turning board with a huge sweet spot but tracky. Corners make a quick turning pivot point with a very small sweetspot. Mix and match to get what you want.
I’m pretty sure Steve’s goal was not to impress you with the brillience of this design… Oh, and Supremely NY dude… The point of the forum is to learn about surfboard design… I’m not Steve Walden’s defense lawyer (hahaha)… It’s just that my professional life has been in creative fields… you need to be free thinking to be creative… poo-pooing Walden’s Stealth based on seeing a single jpeg of it isn’t very free thinking.
I’ve spent time talking to Steve about how he came up with this board. That’s why I jumped in. Roy… you’re right about the concept being lifted from the Stealth aircraft. So what? Steve was looking at all the military propoganda that was out about the then new fighter jet, and thought it would be funny to make a board like that. He also wanted to see for himself how important a flowing template was to the board’s performance. It started as a goofy experiment, but Steve ended up liking the way it surfed. He surfs these all the time. When he does, it looks like it goes like a traditional board. Just because there’s no explanation with the jpeg that started this thread doesn’t mean there’s no thought behind it. Steve has made more boards than most others on this planet. He’s tried all kinds of kooky stuff along with making “normal” boards. Give him some slack for being creative and whimsical. He’s doing what he can to look outside the box.
And just a sidenote… I’ve never actually surfed a Walden that worked for me. I know surfers who swear by them, but the boards I’ve ridden were stiff and hard to redirect. Very stable… but that’s not my thing. I like longboards that ride like shortboards. I want to whip them around and throw spray. Waldens are not bad… just not for me.
