Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The awning was already here when we moved in to the workshop here at Krowji; a few lengths of 2"x4" with some clear plastic tarpaulin pinned to it that the previous occupant had built out over the back door as a sort of lean-to. So far it's just been keeping bags of sawdust dry before they get sent off to be turned into briquettes, however this afternoon Eddy was able to enjoy a bit of fresh air as he finished sanding his new Island Hopper....
The name paipo (pronounced pipe-oh) is derived from the Hawaiian "Pae Po'o" which means to surf headfirst. Essentially these surfboards are...
The making of anything is likely to result in some wastage of materials, and wooden surfboards are no exception. But how much you waste and what...
This past month it has finally felt as though Summer has arrived here in the south west of the UK - on some days at least! And when we get a high...
This weekend just gone saw the 2nd edition of the Girls 10 Board challenge go down at Godrevy, hosted by the National Trust. The idea of the...
This afternoon Glenn Bowker carefully lined up an inked rubber stamp, paused to take a breath, and then pressed it firmly down onto the deck of the wooden surfboard that he's been shaping this week. Stamping the surfboard with the Otter Workshops logo is the final job on a "Build-Your-Own" workshop to-do list, and it's as important and celebrated as the topping out ceremony on any building. It signifies the completion of something and is a...
"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...
Poplar is a popular choice when we ask customers which hardwoods they would like to have laid up into the deck and bottom skins of their surfboards....
It's that time of year again! We've spent the day helping to put up the signage for all of the Open Studios events that will be happening...
It's Friday afternoon which means both blog-time and also, during "build-your-own" workshop weeks, the culmination of a week's hard work and the...
We were delighted to welcome 10xEuropean Longboard Champion Ben Skinner into the workshop this week to get started designing a wooden big wave gun for him. Ben is himself a surfboard shaper as well as being the most successful British competitive surfer to date, and is collaborating with us and Surfers Against Sewage to design and build a surfboard for him to paddle into a wave of significant size off the British coast this coming...
The saying goes that it never rains, but it pours. Today feels like one of those days here because so many seeds that we have been planting over...
Let us introduce you, a little more formally, to The Island Hopper. At 7'4" it's the Otter Surfboard's "one board quiver" model, perfect for...
The last few weeks have delivered some really good waves here in the South West of the UK. In fact it's been a winter of note, which is why we've...
What're you doing next Saturday? We'll be going for a swim in the waves - you should come along too.
Every now and then you see the sort of weather chart that makes you want to drop everything and run to the coast. This weekend, bookended by bank holidays, is just one of those: A low pressure has been sat in the mid-North Atlantic all week and was as low as 950mb at one stage, pushing a good period groundswell towards the shores of Western Europe. There's also been a high over the North Sea which has been drawing in a steady easterly wind...
It's officially Spring, and that means that for many of us the prospect of being fully immersed in the sea rather than floating above it on a...
Abrasive paper has been around for a long, long, time. Back in the thirteenth century the Chinese, in amongst inventing all sorts of other clever...
Pilot cutters are the vessels that worked the coastline between the Isles of Scilly and Bristol during the latter part of the 19th Century. Their...
