Family Tree

26 . 07 . 15

For many families, school summer holidays involve going away somewhere and spending a week or so together making memories and enjoying each others company. What can often happen though, is that the kids end up doing different activities whilst mum and dad enjoy lunch or a quiet walk, before picking them up later. Not the Summerfield family, however. This lovely family of six spent all of last week with us making their own 9’8” stand-up paddle board ready for summer adventures.

Dad David, Mum Kezia, eldest daughter Noushka and son Tylo all took turns on the tools, building up the wooden blank before shaping it back over the course of the five days, whilst Malu and Tani the youngest offered encouragement in-between playing with Buddy the dog, making and decorating model wooden surfboards using the out-cuts from the internal framework (which they even took surfing to see if they floated), and using Chris as a human climbing frame.

The board that they made is 9’8” x 31” x 4.25” and is designed as multi-purpose board, intended to be used for flat water paddling so that the family can explore the calm waters of Poole Harbour and visit Brownsea Island near their home in Dorset, but also take it out to catch a few small waves on when there’s surf. The energy in the workshop over the five days that the Summerfields were with us was wonderful, and it was lovely to have an entire family with us in the workshop, and even better that they were all involved in the making of their new board, from writing the poem that they burnt onto the internal ribs using a pyrography pen, through the gluing, shaping and sanding, all the way to the moment when they all signed their names on the bottom and declared it a job well done. We’re excited to hear about the adventures that they have on their new SUP, and are curious to see how they decide who gets to go on it first – or if they try democratically to all climb aboard at once.