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...
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...
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...
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...
June, July and August have been busy months so far here in the workshop, with “business as usual” colliding with the culmination of various...
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...
Sometimes, and completely coincidentally, we have an “International Week” here at the workshop when all of the participants on a wooden surfboard...
We’ve written before at the close of a workshop week about how, over the course of these five-days, the learning flows both ways. It’s rare that this isn’t the case; almost without fail the people who join us to spend a week learning to make a wooden surfboard have knowledge and skills that they share with us in return. There’s a lovely balance to the exchange of information here. Last week we were joined by Robbie, who travelled down...
Everybody who joins us to make their own surfboard has an interesting story; Tim’s is one that none of us could quite get our heads around though.
Attending a course to make a wooden surfboard is, for many of our customers, the culmination of many months or even years of day-dreaming and either...
The community of surfers who have passed through our workshop over the years is a beautifully broad spectrum representing the 21st Century surfer....
Spending a week making a wooden surfboard here at Otter is, for most people, going to be a step away from their day-to-day. The differences between...
Our August Bank Holiday workshop had a little bit of everything in it, and as such was a fantastic representation of what makes our “Make Your Own” wooden surfboard courses so special; Matt, Terry and Martin (in that order in homage to the late Hobie Surfboards shaping legend Terry Martin…) arrived on the Bank Holiday, ready to start work when the rest of the country was enjoying a day off, and each had their own story to tell.
It feels somewhat counterintuitive to drive away from Cornwall and head up to London in the middle of August, but last weekend that's exactly what we...
Chris and Rikke drove from Denmark to make their own surfboards with us last week. They took their time and made a road trip out of it, spending some...
The week of June 19th-23rd was the ideal time to be in Cornwall as the southwest basked in a heatwave that included the hottest June day since 1976,...
