Journal
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
The latest news and stories from our workshop, and beyond.
Last week we were joined here in the Otter workshop by Chris and Phil who came to make their own sustainable wooden surfboards, Chris made a 6’4 Woodeburner and Phil made a 7’2 Coaster. Here’s a round up of how the week played out behind our blue doors.
For those of you that have bought one of our handplane kits, this How To guide will take you through each step of the making of your bodysurfing...
In the last week of October, we were joined in the workshop by Harry and Chris. Both had travelled from the other side of the UK, to join us, but...
For the second of our August “Make Your Own Wooden Surfboard” workshops, we were joined by Matt and Henry. Matt runs a company that designs...
Our first August wooden surfboard workshop was a special one, not least because we had three 7’2” Coasters on the trestles here. We were...
Cornwall put on a great show in July with beautiful weather and some small swells to break the early summer flat spell. We were joined in the workshop by Guillaume, who travelled from Lille, France, to make his own wooden surfboard with us and one of the most rewarding things about his week was to see him fall in love with a place that he had never considered before. Guillaume came to make a surfboard, but also made a connection with Cornwall...
Jersey has an incredibly rich surfing heritage; these days the Channel Islands are often overlooked in the UK surf scene but when surfing first...
We now offer beautiful carry bags for our traditional wooden bellyboards; as with everything that we do and sell here at the workshop, these have...
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...
The Benefits of Making Most of us work with our hands every single day. But because the majority of developed economies are now based on...
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 off wood as a medium rather than hide it. Woodblocks have been used in printmaking for millennia, with the earliest surviving example originating from China and dating back to 220AD. Ordinarily a carved wooden block is used to repeatedly print onto paper or cloth, with the woodblock itself seldom...
When making surfboards, accuracy, symmetry and attention to detail are essential considerations. Our wooden surfboards use a skin-on-frame...
Last summer we received an e-mail from one of our friends at Surf Simply; Kerianne, their logistics manager, was spending a summer on Long Island,...
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...
It’d be fair to say that we’re fans of a proper tea break here at Otter Surfboards; downing tools for ten minutes a couple of times during the day and drawing breath over a cup of tea and, if we’re lucky, a slice of cake. And we think that we’ve found our favourite cake.
Surfboards vary in appearance as much as the human beings that use them; many become a vehicle for expression both in the way that they are ridden...
We’ve had a rather unusual surfboard stored in the workshop for the past year or so; it’s a twelve feet long replica of a Tom Blake style...
Our final workshop of 2015 has just wrapped up, and it was a great week to finish the year on. Every single one of the “Make-Your-Own” wooden...
