Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
Ordinarily, it’s only James who keeps a pencil tucked behind his ear. This past week though, all three workshoppers arrived with the same habit; a subconscious action that meant that whether or not they even needed a pencil, one was always to hand.
One of the questions that we always ask anybody who joins us to make their own wooden surfboard, is where they think they’ll have their first...
A couple of Saturdays ago we packed the workshop into the back of the van and drove half an hour up the coast to Watergate Bay Hotel for our first...
Last week the workshop doors here were flanked on a daily basis by two pairs of boots drying in the sun, and an enormous (yet beautifully docile)...
Our “Make Your Own Wooden Surfboard” workshop courses have become a core part of what we do here, and as with every thing somebody had to be the...
When a person says that they intend to take a blowtorch to their freshly finished wooden surfboard before it goes off to be laminated, you could forgive us for raising our eyebrows somewhat. But it’s happened more than once, and on this latest (second) occasion it was more than a cursory tickle.
Neither Brian nor Ben are strangers to working with their hands to create something; Brian is a garage owner and mechanic from North Wales who...
No two workshops are ever the same, and the people that arrive here on a Monday morning and end up stood out in front of our big blue doors holding...
During the last week of September, we were joined by Jac, who was celebrating his 21st birthday by making a 5’10 Fetch with us. He travelled to us...
Having somebody join us from overseas for a workshop week to make their own wooden surfboard is not uncommon, but having a completely...
We've spent a fair bit of time over the last month loading and unloading bits of our workshop in and out of the back of our van, as we've spent a couple of weekends at the Art in Action and Port Eliot festivals whilst attempting to carry on as "business as usual" in between. We're back and properly unpacked again now following a weekend at the incredible Port Eliot literary festival last weekend, and have had a chance to reflect on a really...
Our friend Tony had quite the complete workshop experience with us over the first six months of this year; he fitted in sessions and days at the...
We’ve always been fascinated by those most ancient of Hawaiian finless wave sliding craft, alaias and olos. Without fins to hold them straight...
We drank a lot of tea during our May “Make Your Own” wooden surfboard workshop the week before last. Marcus and David were with us building...
Two weeks ago, whilst the surfing population of southwest England stared in frustration at the small, wind-blown, waves lapping on their shores,...
Last Wednesday James took on the drive from Cornwall up to London, pushing his way through West London traffic at rush hour to arrive at Finisterre’s flagship store on Earlham Street in Seven Dials, right in the thick of Covent garden in the West End, with just minutes to spare before he was due to talk in front of eighty people there. He’d been invited up by our friends at Finisterre to run an in-store “make-your-own” handplane...
Our first “Make Your Own” workshop week of 2016 has just finished up, and it was a great way to kick off this year’s series of courses. We...
Our final workshop of 2015 has just wrapped up, and it was a great week to finish the year on. Every single one of the “Make-Your-Own” wooden...
Ordinarily, the people who join us to build their own wooden surfboard over the course of a workshop week have a fairly similar understanding of...
