Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
Back in spring we visited Ireland and spent a couple of weeks surfing our way down the wild West Coast. One of the beaches that we stopped off to surf at was Doughmore, a long sweep of sand facing out into the North Atlantic framed by sloping reefs and with a small reef in the middle of the beach and numerous beach break peaks on either side. The beach is backed by sand dunes, behind and on top of which are the fairways and greens of Doonbeg...
Long-range groundswells born of far off hurricanes and the first rumblings of winter mix with the last gasp sunshine of summer in autumn, and the...
There's no entrance fee for the sea; it's a free natural resource that so many people get immeasurable pleasure from. At worst you might have to pay...
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...
Late last spring we were visited by Chris, Rob and Matt, who were travelling the length of the British Isles documenting makers, producers and...
Last weekend saw our fourth Annual Gathering of Makers, where we invited all the people who have shared a week with us in the workshop crafting their own surfboard back down to Cornwall to reconnect with our local section of the coastline, relive their experiences with us and fill their tummies with some wonderful food. We love to start the weekend by gathering people together during the day on Saturday to get in the sea and despite the...
The Sunday of the first weekend in September has, for over a decade now, been the day that bellyboard aficionados converge on Chapel Porth beach...
Having somebody join us from overseas for a workshop week to make their own wooden surfboard is not uncommon, but having a completely...
Well not quite, but almost. This past week, Patagonia have been touring the UK showing their latest range of wetsuits; wetsuits that are neoprene...
A life for me without using my hands, without making, and specifically without making things out of wood is completely incomprehensible.
Last September Mat headed down to the southwest corner of France for a few weeks with his friends from Surf Simply. Because September and October are the height of the rainy season in Costa Rica, where Surf Simply have their luxury surf coaching resort, they shut up shop for a month and several of their coaches run a satellite coaching project on the French coast. Mat joined them as the project’s photographer, swimming in the beachbreaks...
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...
We like to keep in touch with everybody who has ever joined us to make their own surfboard, and it’s incredible when we receive an e-mail with a...
Robert Chapman (known around the Otter workshop as Rob) joined us last November to make a surfboard as a gift for his son who’s currently living...
It's festival season once again, and with the hope that this year's quota of rain has already fallen on Glastonbury, we're making preparations to...
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 workshop as and when he could and worked on his 9'1" Wicket slowly-but-surely. He helped with every single stage of the process, from selecting the planks for his board, through machining and gluing up skins and rail strips to going with James in the van to deliver his surfboard to be glassed by Paul...
The Friday before last, on the evening of June 10th, we held our second annual “Boards, Bangers and Beers” open workshop evening. The weather...
We’ve always been fascinated by those most ancient of Hawaiian finless wave sliding craft, alaias and olos. Without fins to hold them straight...
You don't have to go very far, or for very long, to feel as though you've broken out of your routine and had a bit of an adventure. A couple of weeks...
