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AndyrooMac said..Hydroman said.."Have you actually ridden a Cosmic twin though or just sold on the marketing hype?"
Guilty, nope. Just love the look and outline of the triple stringer.
"At the end of the day, the best board is the one YOU enjoy surfing... so just keep surfing the thing you love."
Spot on brother.
"I just saw your Walden is a 7'8"!!! that must be around 70ltrs"
Yes 7'8, but no it's 52L. Your mate must be riding the Mega Mini Magic, that in the 7'8 is up around the 70L.
Mine is just the Mini Magic, stupid marketing distinctions made up by Walden as they tried to slot multi volume versions of the same design into the market.
Got some guys around where I surf are blown away when they realise I'm on a 7'8 Walden "grandad bod board". Get comments like "Never seen a mini mal blow the fins out the back of the lip before", "Hey Old Mate how do you throw that thing around like it's a short board?" So I wouldn't say it's a squashed log as such, although it can nose ride amazingly as well. It just has too much performance in it to equate it too a log or even a fat fun board design.
I've ridden a Christenson in 7'0 and I still think the Walden goes better than it did.
If you want to get an idea of the current equivalent to mine it's called the dual core mini magic. A way better looker than mine, same outline and bottom shape but still a typical egg mid board.
surfsupwarehouse.com.au/product/walden-mini-magic-dual-core/ It sounds like your style is not really conducive to the "traditional" Midlength boards, your really using a bigger board to surf like a Short Board.
Those traditional mids origins are from the transition era, with some modern refinement but ultimately designed for natural trim and glide (without pumping!!!), smooth lines and drawn out turns which is where a Christenson C-Bucket/Flat Tracker, Tak mid, Lovelace mid etc excels, I'd also throw the Joel Fitz board you love into that mix, not really shaped "to rip". I mean, for me, the best Mid riders are Trevor Gordon, Ryan Burch, Joel Tudor, Devon Howard, Torren Martin etc. Those guys are amazing surfers but they're never "blowing the fins out" The below is a great example, really simple and beautiful surfing...
There are however a bunch of excellent "Big Boy Short Boards" that I would say are more in your wheelhouse so maybe that more where you should be looking and there's more info on those boards in the SB room to be fair... I mean this is technically the Longboard room...

Awesome vid Andyroomac, just the medicine I needed this afternoon.
Yeah ... Nah, I love that style of surfing and emulate it on any wave I get like that. But here in Perth we don't get many long runners like that, our waves are POW, one maybe two moves and your done unless you want to hit one of 3 or 4 super crowded reefs in a 100km stretch of coastline.
That is my preferred surfing, long lines, mellow style, relaxed, and the boards I've ridden have all done exactly that. But this Walden thingy has got dynamite in it's rails and a rocket in it's tail. With the 2 plus 1 it was good, quick, predictable and surfed much like your clip but still able to send it to the lip like Devon Howard does with the CI Mid, so awesome pivot. But it had a limiter, you could feel that middle fin hit it's max warp and then it would start humming.
So I went weird and threw in a set of the Futures K2 keels for an experiment because I couldn't afford a Morning of the Earth long twin. And holy bat mobile booster rockets. Went from quick to max warp speed, suddenly making sections and getting 3 to 4 moves in on a wave instead of one to two. As for blowing the fins, that's my signature bail move at closeout, just send it vertical after everyone's thinking your a crusty old geezer. Feels even better when you nail the landings consistently, but no not my every turn style, just amazed me that this board had it in her and just did it like a mind meld.
I did the SB with a Yahoo Yallingup Hippie, good volume 6'4 board but.... mehh, no style. The longest they made was the 6'9, I love the extra length for the glide, paddle in and nose ride, but volume alone does not give me that.
So I'll stop banging on about the Big W and just hang around here watching the ripper boards people post up. Besides I might not have it much longer anyway, depending on how long it takes my shaper to make my a custom 7'6 based on it.