An Interview with a Local Legend: Steve Walden

Dubbed the “Father of the Modern Longboard”, Steve Walden is a local legend in Ventura. Walden has shaped well over 20,000 boards since he began at the young age of 13 in the 60s and continues to contribute to the local surf scene to this day. 

This year, Walden Surfboards is celebrating its 60th anniversary. We sat down with Walden to learn about the inception of the Magic Model longboard, his favorite local surfers, restaurants in Ventura to check out, and why he loves this beach town.

Question: How did you find success with Walden Surfboards?

I’m lucky, [it’s been] a lot of luck. I was able to make some choices not knowing what the future would be. 

We’ve been growing solid for the last 20 years. We sell boards internationally all over the world through my partner with Surftech. They are a great manufacturer and distributor and the crew is a really good crew to work with. 

We’re still trying to innovate, I’m still working on new designs and things [that] make surfing more enjoyable and making boards that are higher performance, more functional for bigger people who suffer a lot from lack of volume in the board and so they’re struggling a lot. We’ve really addressed that and that’s been very successful.

Question: How did the Magic Model come to be?

I was making boards and my friends would come back saying, “Oh this board’s magic! It’s Magic!” so I thought, “I’ll call it the Magic Model.”  

It’s something that evolved from the early 80s. It started in Hawaii by integrating the boards I was making with Lightning Bolt Surfboards and making that kind of design into the longboard. 

Then when I moved to California, I started shaping with Al Merrick. [We] did all of Channel Islands Surfboards Productions, which when you think about it now it’s crazy! [Channel Islands Surfboards] was an even more progressive aspect of shortboards. I integrated all that and created something that is basically a modern longboard and it’s unique enough to where I actually have a patent on the whole design. 

Question: Where does your inspiration come from when designing a board?

Well I’m kind of an artist too. I paint and do other things like that and to me, it really fulfills a need for making something—it’s a form of sculpting. I get a lot of satisfaction out of just the enjoyment of creating something. When I’m done with it, you know, I have something I’ve done versus doing paperwork work and that sort of thing. 

And I think one of the best things about it is you see the customers come in and pick up their board and they’re happy with it. It makes people happy. And, [surfing] is a really healthy sport. What I make is good for people’s body and their mind and it brings enjoyment to people. 

Question: Do you have a favorite moment from your shaping career?

Some of it is making surfboards for my grandkids and for my kids. It’s just nice to be able to hand it down to the next generation and the generation after that. 

Back then, I had no idea, you know, we just were making surfboards having fun and surfing all the time. It’s evolved to what it is today and I’m very happy and I’m still we’re still going up. We haven’t slowed down yet… I’m slowing down a little, but other than that, I still enjoy shaping, it’s what I love to do.

Visitors come in from all over and it’s really nice. We have people coming from just about everywhere: Japan, Europe, Australia, one guy came from Norway to talk to me. 

It’s still fun, I enjoy it, it gets me going, it’s energetic and I don’t want to stop. I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can possibly do it. 

Question: Who are your favorite local surfers?

I think Mary Osborne is really cool and Jeff Belzer is a really good guy. And one guy that I’ve been making surfboards for over 50 years is Richard Deets and he’s one of the longtime locals here. 

Question: Why did you pick Ventura to have Walden’s headquarters?

In 1991, I had a friend up here —Richard Deets— and he had a business. I came up to visit with him and to surf and to help him a little bit with the resin issues that he was having. Surf [here] was good and I met a few of his friends and one thing led to another. It wasn’t too long later that I came up and got a place. I was in Oceanside at the time and I moved about a year later and moved everything up here. I just fell in love with it. 

Geographically is what I like [about Ventura]. The town is only, what, not even a mile wide. You have rolling hills and beyond it, you have the ocean. It’s just something that is easily walkable. If you get someplace to stay you can pretty much walk all over downtown and see just about everything. [Ventura has] got a really great feel to it. It still maintains that small-town atmosphere and quality that I really enjoy.

Question: Where is your favorite place to eat here in Ventura?

There are a lot of really good restaurants in town. Right around the corner here is Spencer Mackenzie’s and they’re good. Up the street is Rumfish y Vino and Capriccio for Italian and Casa de Soria for Mexican.

Question: What makes Ventura so special to you? 

Just the community. It’s a tight community — it has that kind of feel where you see people that you know. 

Like I said, geographically it’s kind of a condensed place, it just has a good feel about it. 

I’ve been to a lot of places and I’ve lived in a lot of places and it’s where I want to be. I could move anywhere I wanted and do anything. I can make surfboards just about anywhere on any coast but this is where I’m going to do it because I love it here.

Ventura’s Surfing History

Ventura has a long and rich history of surfing, dating back all the way to the first professional surfing competition right at C-Street in 1965. While we boast incredible surfing legends like Steve Walden himself and others like Bill “Blinky” Hubina, Ventura surfboard shaper icon who was inducted into the International Surfboard Builders Hall of Fame in 2022, what has always remained is the close-knit community that looks out for each other.

Ventura Partners With