Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
Everybody who joins us to make their own surfboard has an interesting story; Tim’s is one that none of us could quite get our heads around though.
Snow rarely settles on this stretch of coast; in fact it very seldom falls. When it does, and there's surf, it's definitely a novelty that gives a...
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...
New Year, New Model Sometimes we set out to design and make a new wooden surfboard model, and sometimes one develops seemingly organically. The...
As one calendar year clicks over into the next, we like to take the opportunity to pause and reflect on the twelve months just passed so that we can...
"It is the story of how I built a surfboard when I never thought I could, and what it's like to build a company when I never thought I would." In the summer of 2016 best-selling author (The Idles Traveller, Crap Towns, Three Men in a Float) and CEO of Unbound publishers, Dan Kieran, joined us for a week and made himself a beautiful 7’2” Coaster. At the time, Dan had no intention of using his experience making a wooden surfboard in...
As autumn ends here in Cornwall yet more neoprene is taken out of the backs of sheds and garages to help us keep surfing through the winter. We’ve...
This last week we’ve been caretaking a book that is both very rare, and incredibly relevant to what we do here. Tom Blake – The Uncommon Journey...
The community of surfers who have passed through our workshop over the years is a beautifully broad spectrum representing the 21st Century surfer....
Sometimes, one wave is all a person needs. It could be one of many, or the only wave of a session, but if it’s enough to make a memory then we’ll...
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 this and a day job ranges from adjusting to spending a week focusing on learning to quite simply spending a week on your feet doing manual work. These adjustments can be challenging, but the reward on Friday afternoon is (we think) well worth it. You can get a good idea of the processes that go...
Creating anything with an organic material such as wood is both challenging and hugely rewarding, particularly if your aim is to work with and show...
This autumn our friends at Surfers Against Sewage have been busier than ever with a twin-pronged attack on the plastic pollution that blights our...
Last weekend, we held our Annual Gathering of Makers. It's a special occasion for us, when we invite all of the makers who have joined us over the...
When making surfboards, accuracy, symmetry and attention to detail are essential considerations. Our wooden surfboards use a skin-on-frame...
"The summers passed with each year. I don't seem to remember them anymore. I remember the fall and the coming of winter. The water got cold. It was a time of the West swell." Jack Barlow, Big Wednesday (1978)
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...
Traffic jams, full car parks and a seemingly never-ending succession of nor'westerly fronts. Welcome, to summer by the sea. Residents can't...
