Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
Two weeks ago, whilst the surfing population of southwest England stared in frustration at the small, wind-blown, waves lapping on their shores, James was enjoying an hour of regular shoulder-high waves every day at the push of a button. He was spending the week at Surf Snowdonia, where we had been invited to run a “Make Your Own” wooden surfboard workshop course, and ironically enjoyed better waves than Chris and Mat who stayed behind at...
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...
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...
Last Saturday, Michael woke up with no idea what he would be doing for the next week; a few months previously his wife had told him that she was planning something for his upcoming fortieth birthday and that he needed to book the week of October 5th off work, however that was as much as she told him. By mid-morning on Saturday he couldn’t handle the suspense any longer and asked just what they would be doing the next day. He’d half...
Our Annual Gathering of Makers is our chance to say thank you; an opportunity for us to invite everyone who has supported us these past few years by...
The British summer holidays are bellyboard season; that time of year when old plywood boards are pulled out of the backs of sheds and garages, dusted...
July was a good and busy month for wooden surfboard workshops here at Otter, and at the very end of the month we welcomed Marc Koska to the...
Last weekend we joined the wonderful team from Surfers Against Sewage at Somersault Festival in North Devon for a weekend of mud, music and...
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...
A few weeks before Claire arrived in the UK from California, a large package arrived at the Otter Workshop addressed to her. When we opened it...
It's not a race to complete the list of daily tasks involved in making your own wooden surfboard with us here, but you'd never have known that if you...
Kurt arrived at the workshop on Monday morning, having driven his pick-up truck half way across Europe from Switzerland to come and spend a week...
It’s lovely catching up with friends who have built surfboards with us in the past – that’s why we throw our “AGM” celebration every...
This week we've had Alan and a whole lot of sunshine in the workshop with us. Whilst the beach at the bottom of the hill has been intermittently cloaked in a thick layer of sea mist over the last few days, our workshop up above it has been enjoying glorious sunshine and we've had the doors wide open every day. Alan has travelled down from North Wales to shape himself a 7'4" Island Hopper with us over the course of this week, finishing up and...
The first workshop week of our 2015 programme ran this week, and it was wonderful to welcome a friend from just down the coast into the workshop....
Sometimes a great swell coincides with a busy week of work, and there's nothing much that you can do about it. It's a great problem to be faced...
Not many twelve year olds can say that they built a wooden surfboard in their half term holidays. Alex can, though.
