Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
At the start of April, we packed our tools and a big stack of bodysurfing handplane blanks into the back of a van and set off on our 2019 “Workshop on Wheels” Tour, delivering our workshop sessions in Finisterre stores around the country. Taking in Bristol, London and Edinburgh, James and Ally left a trail of sawdust and happy bodysurfers-to-be in their wake. We’re incredibly grateful to our friends at Finisterre for allowing...
We now offer beautiful carry bags for our traditional wooden bellyboards; as with everything that we do and sell here at the workshop, these have...
We’re excited to announce that the 2019 edition of our annual summer open evening, Boards, BBQ and Beers, will be taking place on the evening of...
Booking on to one of our workshop weeks is like booking a holiday. In fact, it is booking a holiday, but one that is pre-populated with daily...
It wasn’t until Nick and Matt, our two February workshop attendees, had spent a bit of time together on Monday getting to know each other that they...
When we first started running make-your-own wooden surfboard courses, we honestly never considered that somebody might come back to make a second. But, it’s now happened enough times to be more than a coincidence. In December, we welcomed Matt back to the workshop to make himself a 9’1” Wicket.
Surfboards, in all their various forms, are relatively fragile; getting them from one place to another, be it to your final destination on a surf...
In mid-October, the workshop was full of the noise and energy of the Koska kids; Flora, Ellie and Jolly. In the summer of 2015 their dad Marc joined...
As we near the end of another year, before we start looking ahead to what’s to come in 2019, we like to take a moment to pause and reflect on the...
The first of our new range of exploration stand-up paddleboards to be developed was the largest; the 12’6” Endeavour. A former workshopper,...
Sharp chisels, plane blades and saws in a woodworking workshop are a given; but a sharp pencil is probably the most important tool of all. There’s no place for dull or blunt when you’re doing fine woodworking, and it all starts at the marking out stage. Consider that a blunt pencil might create a line that is a couple of millimetres wide, and then think about the knock-on impact upon accuracy as you move through subsequent processes. The...
As I walk along the litter-laden coastline of my local beach break clutching a beaten-up old surfboard held together largely with duct tape and good...
With Christmas fast approaching, and because some of our products such as handplanes and bellyboards are handmade to order, we need to let those...
At the end of last year, James’ dad Andrew turned sixty. We’d been developing, slowly but surely, our range of flat-water exploration stand-up...
The first wooden surfboard that James made has just celebrated its tenth birthday, and it’s still going strong! Whiz is a 5’10” classic twin...
I’ve spent a fair chunk of my adult life now at sea on wooden vessels – be they surfboards or sail boats. Holding the line of a 5'5, 8kg Seader in fast, beautifully round, waves in the Maldives for the first time required a shift in my approach. I had to slow down, to feel more, and become more sensitive. It didn't happen on my first attempt, or even my second, but with some patience and practice I realised that James’ board demanded my...
Everybody loves getting a postcard through the mail, particularly in the age of e-mails when most of what lands on our doormats is bills and...
“It has taken seven years to write and it’s only 27,000 words long but I have finally finished the thirteenth book that will have my name on...
Every year, as summer gives way to autumn, we invite all of our previous wooden surfboard workshop attendees back to Cornwall to celebrate their...
