Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
"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 hands and his brain and his heart is an artist." It was incredibly flattering when we read this quote in the short introduction to a movie project that we've just got involved with. And this is one project that we're getting awfully excited about! A few weeks ago we were approached by the...
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...
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 the past nine months or so have suddenly sprouted and come into flower. Back in September last year James was in front of the camera being filmed for Clarks Shoes who were making a series of web shorts about "The Art of Craft", with each episode featuring one of their craftsmen and a subject from...
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...
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 surfboard is a little more tempting. We'd like to facilitate that immersion and so we've expanded our range of handplanes to offer a neoprene strap alongside the current hand-hole option. Until now we've produced our handplanes with an ergonomically curved handhold which allows you to switch hands...
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...
It's always great to get feedback from clients about the boards that we've shaped them, and particularly so when the feedback is accompanied by...
This week we're going to tell you about how we use walnut in our surfboards. You may have noticed how we use hardwood accent strips on the deck and...
This past week has been a busy one in the workshop here at Otter surfboards, and it's been absolutely brilliant. We've been running another one of our "Build-Your-Own" workshop weeks and this time it was the turn of Allan and Myles to get busy with clamps, block planes and glass paper turning a stack of raw materials into two finished surfboards over the course of five days.
British like cricket: that was the over-arching theme when we set out to design and build a more performance orientated mal to sit at the...
Let us introduce you to the humble surform. Many of you may already be familiar with them, but we're going to take a closer look at this...
Stand tall and proud. Go out on a limb. Remember your roots. Drink plenty of water. Be content with your natural beauty. Enjoy the...
