The course
A day in the workshop
Timber, bench, outline, shaping, maker's marks (which was cool to do), and then the finished board.
Wood / water / prize day
Belly Board
Won a competition, prize was a day course making a wooden belly board. Turned it into a lovely trip out to Cornwall.
- Timber
- Cedar. The blank arrives already laminated — Otter make their own ply from thin veneers.
- Dimensions
- Otter’s traditional blank, roughly four foot by a foot, half an inch thick. I drew mine to waist in towards the tail rather than run parallel all the way down.
- Shaping
- Bandsaw for the outline, then planes and a spokeshave for the rails, then a lot of filing, then paper.
- Finish
- Tung oil. They show you the first coat and send you home with the bottle. Three coats in the end.
- Where
- Otter Surfboards, Mount Pleasant Eco Park, Porthtowan, Cornwall. Built in Cornwall, going in the water in Devon.
- Time
- One day, ten in the morning until late afternoon. The oiling happened at home afterwards.
What I learned
All sorts of people on the course, which was really nice. I enjoyed it - something I would never have made.
What I would change
Get it in the water sooner! It has been finished, oiled and standing indoors ever since, which is clearly wrong.
The object
Simple shape
Quite simple but rewarding
