SHAPER PROFILES
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STEVE WALDEN - WALDEN SURFBOARDS
JOHN LUCAS - LUCAS SURFBOARDS
BOB McTAVISH - McTAVISH SURFBOARDS
RICKY CARROLL - RICKY CARROLL SURFBOARDS
STEVE FORSTALL - CODA SURFBOARDS
STEVE WALDEN - WALDEN SURFBOARDS
Known by many as the “Father of the Modern Longboard,” Steve Walden shaped his first surfboard in 1961, at age 13, and never looked back. Eight years later, the native Southern Californian opened his first board factory and store in Huntington Beach then moved to the North Shore of Oahu in 1972 where he made a name for himself as a prolific longboard shaper.
While the rest of the surfing world was fixated on short single-fins, Walden continued to faithfully hone his longboard designs. Over the years he shaped for prestigious labels like Lightning Bolt, Local Motion, HIC, and Channel Islands, but it was always his own boards that set him apart. By the early 80s, Walden returned to California where he unveiled his wildly successful Magic Model with its radical rocker, down-turned rails, and super-fast Turbo Hull bottom contour.
With arguably the most advanced and high performance longboard on the market, Walden was uniquely positioned to capitalize on the resurgence of longboarding in the late 80s and 90s. To date, Walden estimates he’s personally shaped more than 20,000 boards, and in 2004, he teamed up with Global Surf Industries to distribute his shapes and expand the Walden Surfboards brand worldwide.
These days, when he’s not mowing foam, Walden is surfing. Though he competed some as a teenager, he returned to contest surfing at the age of 30 and has been a regular on the winner’s podium ever since. In fact, Walden still holds the record for the longest noseride in competition history with an epic 25.5-second ride.
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JOHN LUCAS - LUCAS SURFBOARDS
John Lucas has been surfing for more than 35 years, and has been shaping surfboards since 1974. His experience as a shaper AND a surfer gives him the unique ability to design surfboards that let you take your surfing to higher levels.
John is a highly regarded craftsman in the surfing industry and has shaped for Island Surfboards, Happy Trails Surfboards, MTB Surfboards, Spectrum Surfboards, Local Motion Surfboards, Pat Mulhern Surfboards, and Jim Phillips Surfboards. All Lucas Surfboards are hand-crafted one at a time by John Lucas and are made with the finest materials available.
“As a surfer/shaper/craftsman I am very meticulous in my work, putting my name on a surfboard means that it must be the best work I can offer to the surfer. Assuring that they will get the board that they need and not a just a generic model from the shaping machine!”
Stop by FreeRide to check out our great selection of Lucas Surfboards.
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BOB McTAVISH - McTAVISH SURFBOARDS
Founder of the McTavish brand in 1962, Bob McTavish is a surfing house-hold name. Over the past 46 years Bob has shaped thousands of custom boards for thousands of happy customers. He started his career in the 60’s, working for such great labels as Scott Dillon, Dale, Hayden, Bob Davie, Morey-Pope, Keyo, and Cord, before setting out on his own in 1969. Bob has travelled and shaped in Hawaii, USA, New Zealand, and all round the Australian coastline.
McTavish Surfboards have been in production non-stop since 1962. The boards have been manufactured under many labels over the years, as Bob has shaped for the likes of Barry Bennett, Scott Dillon, San Juan, and Morey-Pope.
The first major distribution of custom McTavish surfboards came with the ‘Bluebird’ model in 1972, the Bluebird was the world’s first production short-board, and had a great reputation for cutting edge design and performance, as well as impeccable quality. Thousands of Bluebird models were manufactured up until 1979, when the logo was phased out. Bob then established a surf shop in Lennox head, working as a shaper for Free-Flight.
Wind-surfing took off in the early 80’s, and Bob began making custom boards, adding many innovations to the sport. With the demise of Wind-Surfing as a popular sport, Bob turned his attention to materials innovation, starting on a moulded epoxy construction process known as Pro Circuit Board (PCB).
After PCB was phased out, a similar moulding process later went on to become Surftech Tuflite. The mid 90’s saw the introduction of the now famous ‘Big M’ logo, on the first ‘modern’ longboards, as ridden at the time by Australian and world champions Ray Gleave, Jason Blewitt, and Gaz Donovan. The Big M logo has had a few refinements since its inception, but is still in production today, on over 20 different McTavish models.
In 1996 McTavish Surfboards signed a licensing agreement with Surftech, to allow McTavish boards to be manufactured with their revolutionary ‘Tuflite’ epoxy construction. This gave customers a broader choice of equipment, as epoxy boards were growing in popularity. The McTavish Surftech range is still now in production, and features 5 models.
2007 saw McTavish Surfboards sign an international manufacture and distribution agreement with Global Surf Industries (GSI) which made McTavish boards available worldwide, in over 30 countries. This agreement allowed the International demand for McTavish boards to finally be serviced, and now 5 models are available worldwide.
The company has existed in many forms over the years, but is now truly international, with a factory and retail operation in Byron Bay, Australia, and distribution of 20 different models to over 30 countries. The McTavish range is broad, from affordable boards to start out on, up to high end collectables made from balsa, and other exotic materials. With over 45 years of experience, the McTavish team are working hard on innovation and design, to lead the next decade of surfboard development.
Over the years Bob has pioneered surfboard technology that is now common-place in almost all boards. Things like vee bottoms, concaves, and rocker profiles. Bobs designs are always cutting edge, and often imitated. His work on developing the short-board is also well documented.
With a lifetime of experience under his belt Bob shows no signs of slowing down, and still surfs daily.
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RICKY CARROLL - RICKY CARROLL SURFBOARDS
Ricky Carroll shaped and glassed his first board when he was 13 years old in 1973. He continued to build boards as a hobby while he worked as an automechanic. In 1978 Ricky took on the job of ding repair for Natural Art Surfboards where he refined his talents as a surfboard craftsman. He worked on his skills in every aspect of board manufacturing, eventually shaping boards for Sea Shapes, Pro Shapes, Natural Art and Local Motion Surfboards.
Fourteen years later it was time to start R&D Surf Inc. After struggling to get the RC line of surfboards going, R&D Surf realized that manufacturing boards for other companies was the way to grow the company.
Labels such as Local Motion, Donald Takayama, Velzy, Pat Rawson, Surfboards Hawaii and Chris Birch were all added to RC Surfboards to make R&D Surf Inc. the largest surfboard glassing factory on the East Coast of the U.S.
Ricky Carroll has proven to be a master surfboard craftsman by his wins in the Reef Board Build -Off competition, and taking the title two years in a row at the Tribute to the Masters Shape-Off in California.
Steve Forstall has been shaping for over 35 years. With over 22,000 boards shaped in his lifetime, the number continues to grow.
Steve started his shaping career creating short boards, though he was better known for his skills as a long boarder. Steve was one of the first to shape modern longboards to ride in a similar way to short boards. He was shaping these years before they began showing up in surf shops as the next best thing.
Steve studied and continues to perfect his work with epoxy resin and the creation of his own line of surfboard blanks for use with epoxy. Says Steve, ”until you learn how to make your own blanks, your not a complete surfboard builder. Learning how to make surfboard blanks has taught me as much as my over thirty years mowing foam."