Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
Our “Make Your Own Wooden Surfboard” workshop courses have become a core part of what we do here, and as with every thing somebody had to be the first person to go through the process. Steve Iliffe is the Neil Armstrong of Otter Surfboards, having enquired about ordering a surfboard back in 2011 and asking James if, actually, there might be a chance for him to have a hand in making his surfboard. Just over five years later, Steve’s been...
Naming something is a difficult business. And, you only get one shot. Sometimes, a name comes instantly as if it was always meant to be, whilst at...
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...
The 7’10” single fin pintail had been back from the laminators for a few weeks, taking up residence on the workshop wall whilst we waited for a...
It’s easy as a small business to always be looking forwards; to plan for the future and keep on pushing ahead. It’s all too common to overlook the positive impact of reflection as a tool that can be used to both inform future decisions and also to provide a bit of affirmation that actually, we’re doing alright. A lot can happen in a year. Here’re some of the best bits of our last one: New Zealand 2016 started for Otter...
Neither Brian nor Ben are strangers to working with their hands to create something; Brian is a garage owner and mechanic from North Wales who...
We’ve never hung a Christmas wreath on the workshop doors here, but we thought that this year we ought to make an effort to get into the festive...
Back in August three of our friends, David Smith and Jack Middleton from Surfers Against Sewage and Jack’s girlfriend Brogen Latham, travelled...
With Christmas fast approaching and because of the handmade to order nature of many of our products, we need to let you all know when our last...
No two workshops are ever the same, and the people that arrive here on a Monday morning and end up stood out in front of our big blue doors holding up a wooden surfboard that they’ve just finished making are as different as their reasons for coming. In the middle week of November, whilst the weather swung from sunshine to driving rain and back again outside, Scott, Brad and Jason joined us, and we were curious as to why they’d chosen to join...
If you take a left out of the end of our road, follow it a mile or so to the end and turn right down the valley, you'll meet the Atlantic Ocean at...
We've just taken delivery of our 2017 calendars, and they're available to buy now over on our products page. We selected twelve of our favourite...
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...
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 to park at the beach, but it's a small price to pay when you consider what you're getting. Therefore, when the two annual Surfers Against Sewage Beach Clean Series roll around (or any other beach clean events for that matter - it makes no difference who organises them), we see it as our chance to...
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...
