Handplanes

What do we do with the offcuts from making our wooden surfboards? Well, for the most part, the offcuts that are produced here in the workshop are just the right size to be laminated up into stylish handplanes to help enhance your bodysurfing sessions.

With the addition of a pair of swim fins to help you kick into waves earlier, these small boards turn your leading hand into a larger planing surface allowing you to control your position in the wave. Now the simple and joyous act of just going for a swim in the ocean can involve catching waves and perhaps getting yourself in a barrel or two!

All our handplanes are made with a concave running from the nose to tail to give you extra lift when held flat on the water and add a rocker curve to the rail line to allow you to turn more easily when placed on rail too. We finish our handplanes with tung oil, which is a 100% natural nut oil. If nut allergies might be a problem, let us know and we'll finish yours with linseed oil instead.

We offer the option of having a message or poem engraved onto your handplane. We do this before oiling, using a pyrography pen that scorches the wood, and which is then sealed by the tung oil. Please email your message to info@ottersurfboards.co.uk with your order number.

We use beautiful fabric offcuts from our friends at Riz Boardshorts to create our own handplane bags, which are made from their 100% recycled and recyclable fabric. These can be used to help protect your handplane from the occasional knock and the sun when left in the back of your car. Head over to our products page to check them out.

Wood Types

Plain Cedar

Triple Dark

Triple Pale

Pale Sandwiched by Dark

Shapes

Pebble - Small, manoeuvrable and can handle fast punchy waves with it's pulled in tail. The perfect plane for the smaller framed bodysurfer.

Bob - Simmons inspired, with a wide tail for speed and manoeuvrability and a little lift in the nose. Fast and loose.

Diamond - The width of our Bob combined with the surface area of our Crescent. The long-time favourite of us here in the workshop.

Crescent - A true all-rounder, with a large planing surface for lift and speed and a cut away in the tail to hold in to steeper wave faces.

Rounded Pin - The largest plane we offer provides you with lots of lift and can cope with the slow, mushy, days as well as the bigger ones.