Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The first of our new range of exploration stand-up paddleboards to be developed was the largest; the 12’6” Endeavour. A former workshopper, David Jones, who joined us back in May of 2016 when he made himself a Pieces of Eight had been in touch to say that if we were ever to design a flat-water SUP, he’d be interested. David, his wife Tracey and their children, live in Richmond in southwest London where David is a member of their local...
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...
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 fin fish, constructed in western red cedar and named after James’ first dog. It was the precursor to our Fetch model that has a slightly wider tail and an updated rocker profile to name but a few improvements that James made as a result of surfing that first board. Whilst lessons have been...
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...
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...
Summing up all of the steps and processes involved in one of our week-long wooden surfboard workshop courses can be a challenge - how does one go from a pile of pieces on a Monday mornning to a finished wooden surfboard by Friday afternoon? At the end of August we were joined by Andrew and Gareth, and Andrew set up an action-camera in the corner of the workshop above his trestles to make a time-lapse recording of his experience. Several...
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...
Surf wax is as necessary when surfing as the surfboard itself, but it’s also a small, consumable product that is often overlooked. Most surf...
June, July and August have been busy months so far here in the workshop, with “business as usual” colliding with the culmination of various...
Allow us to introduce Ally. Ally is one of James’ best friends, and the latest member of the team here at Otter Surfboards. For his 30th birthday,...
Easkey Britton, PhD, is a pioneering Irish surfer with a fascinating story: an academic and world travelling professional surfer, amongst other achievements she helped to sow the seeds of a female-led surf culture in Iran and regularly surfs the enormous waves of Mullaghmore near her home in Donegal, Ireland. A couple of years ago we were delighted to receive an e-mail from Easkey with photos of her appearing in the Irish press holding our...
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...
Last Friday we were lucky enough to host the UK premiere of The Plastic Project’s film Dispatches From a Plastic Planet at our annual Boards, BBQ...
Last week, Joe and Mat joined us for our June wooden surfboard workshop week. They’re identical twin brothers, and back in January they had a big...
