2009 Longboard luau Invitational

Live Auction preview
John Peck & Linda
Fernando Aguerre & family with Brandy of Walden

Live Auction

A few Legends

Jericho & Linda Benson

Hula before the auction

Mickey

Woodie, 2010 co-chair

The third week in August is the Moores UCSD Cancer Center Luau & Longboard Invitational to help to increase cancer awareness and raise much needed funds for cancer research and care.
Now in its 16th year, it has become one of the most successful surfing fundraisers and donated more than $3 million for the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. The Luau & Longboard Invitational has an international reputation for bringing together in the aloha spirit some of the most respected men and women in surfing history with community leaders, scientists, and national celebrities to surf for a cure.

The 2009 Longboard luau was a bit smaller this year a combination of scheduling conflicts ( surf expo was the same weekend) and no doubt economic issues, but what did not change was the stoke in the air for this great cause. Year after year the Longboard luau team puts on an amazing first class event and year after year the legends show up with out compensation to surf and support the longboard luau. It was great to see the cancer survivors team go out and surf strong, and to hear the crowds on the beach cheer them on.

Walden Surfboards was proud to participate again this year, even though Walden himself could not attend, he was overseas doing dealer and promo tours. Sent to represent the Walden Surfboard family was girlfriend Brandy who once again dreamed up a great concept surfboard for the live auction. The winner of the 2009 Longboard Luau Walden/Brewer photo surfboard was Fernando Aguerre, Fernando was also the winner of the 2009 Walden board. A big thank you to Fernando for his support, we are proud to have two boards in his amazing private collection. The auction didn't fetch the prices it had in previous years, but we know the team at the Longboard luau will just work harder, their good at that. We can't wait for next year.

2009 Moores UCSD Longboard luau

2009 Longboard luau donation in progress
2008 signature board winner Fernando of Reef

2006 "Tattoo" board hand painted by the artists of TV's "Miami Ink

2005 "LIVESTRONG" surfboard

Countdown to the 2009 Moores UCSD Cancer Center Luau & Longboard invitational

Each August, the annual Moores UCSD Cancer Center Luau and Longboard Invitational surfs for a cure to raise awareness and much needed funds for cancer research. By bringing together some of the most respected men and women in surfing history with business leaders, scientists, local politicians and national celebrities, the Longboard Luau is one of the world’s most successful surfing fundraiser and has an international reputation for celebrating the “aloha” spirit in the fight against cancer. Now in its 16th year, the Invitational has raised more than $3 million for the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. http://www.longboardluau.org/

For the past 8 years Steve Walden & his girlfriend Brandy have participated in the event, each year donating a one of a kind surfboard to the live auction. " The Longboard luau is such an important event and I am honored to be a part of it and to help raise money for such a worthy cause" says Walden. Past Walden donations have included a Lance Armstrong "LIVESTRONG" Magic model that Lance himself signed. which sold fore 27,500.00 A balsa Magic model signed by Greg Noll, Al Merrick, Renny Yater, Bob Mctavish an many more which sold for 17,000.00

This years donation may top them all, Walden Surfboards has partnered with legendary photographer Art Brewer for one of mostly ambitious boards ever. Art has a collection of never or rarely seen Polaroid photos of the surf industries greatest riders & personalities, the 2009 luau board will feature a compilation of some of Art's greatest photos from this collection. Art has also put together a Limited edition book which includes every photo on the board, this book will be included in the auction with the board. As a rule Walden never shows the completed board until the auction is complete but we have a sneak peak of the board being glassed.

Each board idea is dreamed up by Brandy and usually takes about 6 months to complete. "Last years donation was the toughest, trying to track down 50+ surfers to sign a surfboard was a challenge, but everyone involved was really into the cause and was thrilled to lend their name to the project" says Brandy, she adds..This year's board was an enormous job but Art really did most of the work in scanning each picture and laying them out". The live auction is August 23rd, we hope this special surfboard helps raise a lot of money for Cancer research.

Special thanks to: Art Brewer for donating his amazing art and his time to this Project & Ray Moss for donating again his printing services. For more info on Art Brewer or Ray Moss visit: http://www.raymosslongboards.com/

http://www.artbrewer.com/

Luke, future SUP champion!

This story was sent to us by Mark A.

A couple weekends ago my six-year-old son Luke and I competed in a competition called the Intracoastal SUP Cup. Basically it’s a 3.5-mile race circumnavigating Harbor Island in Wrightsville Beach, NC. There were maybe 50 racers competing but I was the only one racing with a passenger on board. Luke and I regularly paddle my 12-foot Walden around the intracoastal waterways near our home, so when news of this event came out, my wife suggested we both race together. We did and we had a blast. My Walden is such a cruiser that we easily broke through the upwind chop and hauled ass along the downwind section to a 10th place finish—definitely a father-son memory that neither of us will ever forget.

The blog is back

We took a short hiatus from the blog to recover from 6 weeks on the road visiting our US dealers on the East coast, Panhandle and Texas. The trip was an amazing opportunity to hang out with our dealers, see their shops and meet their staff. Each shop caters to different surf, surfers and conditions and it was great to see the differences in each shop. After some well deserved R&R, were shaping every day all day to fill orders for all are dealers. Thanks to everyone we met on the trip!

Now that we are fully recovered the blog is back!