Captured on Countryfile

James spent the day with presenter Hannah White, taking her to Woodstock to show how we upcycle their hardwood offcuts for use in our surfboards and handplanes, before coming back to the workshop to show her around and talk her through how we build wooden surfboards whilst considering our impact upon the natural environment.  On the trestles was the 9’8″ big wave gun that we’ve been building for Ben Skinner to tackle some monster swells on this winter, which naturally drew some attention with it’s sleek, elegant, outline and sustainability back story.

Hannah had been due to shape herself a handplane to film with in the sea that afternoon, but time was tight (filming for TV always seems to take longer than expected) so unfortunately we had to cut our time in the workshop short and head off down to the beach.  There, we met up with a group of around twenty local wave riders of various denominations, from bodysurfers with wooden handplanes, through bellyboarders (some traditionalists even braving the cold without wetsuits on a late November day!) to finless alaia enthusiasts.  The weather the day before had been truly awful with 40mph winds battering the coast, however the sea had calmed down enough to allow everybody to catch some waves on camera and for James to show Hannah how to use a handplane to bodysurf waves in towards the beach.

The show is due to air at 6pm on Sunday December 15th on BBC1, and we’re looking forward to sitting back and seeing our surfboards and handplanes on prime time TV.

Now might also be an appropriate time to say that if you’ve been thinking about purchasing a handplane as a Christmas present then it’s probably worth putting your order in before the show airs and generates a bit of pre-Christmas interest!  Just drop us a line at the workshop, send us an e-mail, or order online through our secure online store.