Head Shaper:

Christian Wolthers

Behind the Brand: A truly cosmopolitan label, Viking Surfboards was founded in Santos, Brazil, in 1974 by Danish surfer Christian Wolthers, who later transferred the operation to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1996 where it continues to thrive today. Wolthers, who was born in 1958, started surfing in 1967 while living in Brazil. After riding several Brazilian labels, he started to shape his own boards in 1972 to meet the demands he identified in his own surfing during competition, and opened Viking soon afterward.

Wolthers won county, state, and national titles in Brazil during the era that followed and, later, his team riders continued the trend. “My inspiration for shaping has always been the pursuit of speed and maneuverability,” Wolthers says. “I’m interested in the search for the next stage in surfboard design and performance.” Wolthers, who also claims to be the first surfer and shaper to have surfed in Denmark—in Hornbaek, on his own Danish-made board back in July of 1979—is proud of his heritage, which he says gives him a unique relationship with the ocean and the craft. “I’m a direct descendant of Viking blood and culture,” he says, “and our ancestral history is linked to the ocean, sea-craft design, and construction.” Today, Viking is a U.S.-based corporation and produces top-quality, performance surfboards, which it distributes throughout Florida and Southern California and exports to Europe, Scandinavia, Central America, Venezuela, and Brazil.

About Viking's Most Popular Models: “My most popular models are the Rodrigo Miranda Epoxy 5'7" and the Cat Bottom Series in epoxy or poly,” says Wolthers. “Both are wide-range-use designs for everyday surf. They excel in waist-high to overhead waves.”

Shop Talk: “In the future, I think the surfboard industry will have to produce ‘low-carbon-emission designs.’ These should be boards that resolve the cost and logistic problems of traveling by using less space and weight, but that are still satisfying to surf in various conditions.”

Tell us about the changes you’ve seen in recent years in the shaping realm, and how it has affected your craft. “I have become much more of a designer because of the CAD program. Shaping takes less time in the actual shaping bay, so you can pay more attention to quality and details.”

What’s the most important thing to look for in a surfboard? “Ideal weight. Each board has to satisfy the surfer’s overall performance ambitions, and the success of that mission depends a lot on its gross weight.”

Which project are you and/or your customers the most interested in at the moment? “Our multiple tail surfboard design series. These are the same models featured here, but each has five different switch-tails, which I call ‘Smart Tails.’ As these three models are CAD pre-shapes, finished by hand, it is now possible to build tail-molds that fit the same EPS or polyurethane glassed boards. Each ‘Smart Tail’ attaches to the board’s main body prior to sanding, and receives a finishing sanding and color, and the result is this: a board design that can switch tails from squash to fish, or swallow to star, or rounded-pin to square. In this project, we have tested over 50 boards and countless plug-designs and materials over the last three years, and now we’re placing the concept into our product line.”