Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
Attending a course to make a wooden surfboard is, for many of our customers, the culmination of many months or even years of day-dreaming and either saving up or waiting for a suitable bit of clear space in their diary. During that time some immerse themselves in the anticipation, and a few ask about the options available for customising their surfboard even further so that they end up with a unique surfboard, as well as having had a unique...
The community of surfers who have passed through our workshop over the years is a beautifully broad spectrum representing the 21st Century surfer....
Spending a week making a wooden surfboard here at Otter is, for most people, going to be a step away from their day-to-day. The differences between...
Our August Bank Holiday workshop had a little bit of everything in it, and as such was a fantastic representation of what makes our “Make Your...
It feels somewhat counterintuitive to drive away from Cornwall and head up to London in the middle of August, but last weekend that's exactly what we...
Chris and Rikke drove from Denmark to make their own surfboards with us last week. They took their time and made a road trip out of it, spending some time in the Champagne region learning about the craftsmanship that goes into the areas famous product, before arriving in Cornwall. Rikke is an industrial designer who is fascinated by process and seeking to balance the disciplines of designing and making, and Chris is a business consultant with a...
The week of June 19th-23rd was the ideal time to be in Cornwall as the southwest basked in a heatwave that included the hottest June day since 1976,...
Mike and Peter travelled from Guernsey to join us at the workshop the week before last; it was the last week of Peter’s school Easter holidays,...
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...
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 “workshop on wheels” event of 2017. It was a blustery day, and the waves weren’t much to get excited about which was a blessing in disguise as the hotel’s event space is a glass fronted room with panoramic views across one of the better beach breaks in the county. We were joined by Mike,...
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...
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 up a wooden surfboard that they’ve just finished making are as different as their reasons for coming. In the middle week of November, whilst the weather swung from sunshine to driving rain and back again outside, Scott, Brad and Jason joined us, and we were curious as to why they’d chosen to join...
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...
