Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
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...
Over the course of the last year we’ve been developing a range of three flat-water exploration stand-up paddleboards. We spent this summer refining...
Surfing is often referred to as “The Sport of Kings” thanks to its ancient history as the preferred pastime of Hawaiian kings and queens, but it...
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...
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.
Late last spring we were visited by Chris, Rob and Matt, who were travelling the length of the British Isles documenting makers, producers and...
We’ve always been fascinated by those most ancient of Hawaiian finless wave sliding craft, alaias and olos. Without fins to hold them straight...
James first met Hannah and Justin Floyd at last year’s DO Lectures in West Wales, where they were part of the team of volunteers helping the event...
Living out of the back of a van seems to have become incredibly en-vogue in recent years. A sure sign of that is when a parody film, such as the...
We’ve had a rather unusual surfboard stored in the workshop for the past year or so; it’s a twelve feet long replica of a Tom Blake style finless paddleboard and it’s spent time alternately propped up in the corner or stacked atop the timber racks. When visitors spot it they usually end up asking what it is and why it’s here because it’s so different to everything else in the workshop. The short answer is that it’s here because it...
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...
This weekend the annual Boardmasters Festival returns to Newquay (7th-11th). The Boardmasters has been running in one guise or another since...
"A man who makes things with his hands is a laborer. A man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman. But a man who works with his...
We were delighted to welcome 10xEuropean Longboard Champion Ben Skinner into the workshop this week to get started designing a wooden big wave gun...
We headed up to the big smoke yesterday to set up our Storyboard exhibition at the Patagonia store in Covent Garden. It took a little longer than expected and will be just about ready for our opening tonight from 4-7pm, so if you're in the area after work, drop in and have a look around. We have the whole exhibition with us - the board half built showing the poem inscribed on the framework and 12 framed images by Mat Arney. This project...
Early last year this project began with excited talks from Tom Clarke, the head Gardener from Trelissick, who'd recently felled a storm damaged tree...
