Having Fun With Handplanes

22 . 02 . 14

In between everything else that we’ve been doing this winter, we’ve been having fun with our handplanes. Everything that we do here is subject to a design and make cycle where we design, prototype, test, evaluate and revise all of our products before sharing them with you so that we can be sure that we’re offering the best products possible. This winter we’ve been testing out a few different handplane shapes and will be releasing one of them this spring, just in time for the water to have warmed up enough to make fully immersing yourself in the sea a more tempting option.

We’ve focused on testing slightly smaller shapes with the intention of making them more manoeuvrable and also easier for younger or slighter framed bodysurfers to use. Whilst this means that they do lose some planing area, it also makes them easier to put into a bag if you’re travelling to somewhere that has waves but where you perhaps can’t easily take a surfboard. James and Liz both took new shapes to Sri Lanka recently for some warm water R&D, and another friend kindly carried one to the Canaries with him for some field testing this winter.

Only once we’re sure that we’ve produced something truly functional do we make it available to our customers. It’s a responsibility of designers and makers to ensure that the final product is fit for purpose and we believe strongly that each of our products must meet a need. Trying and testing new ideas is an important process here at Otter Surfboards, and we’re very lucky that the testing process is so much fun!