But kind of in the last 10 or 15 years wood has made a big comeback

They surf wonderfully

It's beautiful and it feels great to be on one of them

I always had a love for wood and kind of passionate about things that went in the water

I've kind of been around wooden boats most of my life

There's just so much character

The way their built, the stories that come with them

A lot of that has translated over to why we build surfboards the way we do

When we first started thinking about building surfboards, wood was the natural material we chose

They have a very high strength to weight ratio

Wooden surfboards have the longest history of use in the surf world than any other material

People have been surfing wooden surfboards since kinda the first

documented history of people riding waves

Board starts in CAD, where we take a 3d model

break down the shape and kind of create frames and templates and

all the inner parts of the board that we get cut

on a CNC machine

We take those frames and we just pop them out

assemble the frame into a kind of skeleton

We go out to our lumber shed, pick a bunch of cedar, bring em into our mill shop

put glue along the edges, clamp it all together into a panel

Everything's book matched, you have symmetry in the colors and texture of the wood

Cut your outline

Take our assembled frame

gently put it down right on top of the plank

Once that foundation is started, you're basically building up the three dimensional shape

the outside part of the board using lots of strips that kind of interlock and fit together

Every piece of wood is going to be different and it's all gonna react differently

There are frustrations with it, but I think that's one of the things that keeps it challenging

you learn to read the, kind of what the grain lines are doing and what the color of the wood is telling you

Once those rails are cleaned up, we put our top planks on

It's a little bit like putting a lid on a box.

It's like this is it, whatever's inside that board is staying inside that board

and by tensioning some rope you can clamp the two together

It's like a time capsule

What makes our boards unique are they are built right here in york

they're built using material that grows right here in the state of maine

they're built 100% by hand, by local crafts people and surfers

There is a lot of time that goes into these boards

between forty and sixty hours, start to finish

We wanted to build surfboards that were as hollow as they could be, but still be strong enough to work well

Too light and they don't surf well but too heavy and they don't surf well

so there's a, there's a balance pint there and that's where we try to be

Taking the board off the rocker table, once the top has gone on.

that is by far one of my top favorite parts

It's just you, and a shaping stand

a board and a hand plane

Everything else is out of your view

it's simple

it's pleasurable

it's quiet

you can be with your thoughts and you can kind of just be present

There's something about taking a nice sharp edge tool to a beautiful piece of wood and feeling the curls coming off

and knowing that every pass that you're making. you're kind of getting it closer and closer to what you have in mind

Once we've shaped it down and the boards looking like it's supposed to look like, time for it to go into the glassing room

4 ounce fiberglass, laying it over the board, draping it over the edges, cutting it, applying epoxy on the board

Once both sides are Lamb coated, it's time to put in the hardware

drill and router and install the fin box

and on the other side we drill and put in the leash plug and a vent

There's a lot of air just naturally inside the board

And that air wants to expand and contract with temperature changes

and that vent has a little piece of gortex fabric in it, and it allows air to kinda breathe both ways

but it doesn't allow water in it

Once all that hardware's put in, goes back into the glassing room,

we brush a nice beautiful thick coat of epoxy over the whole surface

and that we call a gloss coat

that's supposed to look beautiful and glossy and shiney and flawless

you get to see that board come to life

whatever the colors in the wood they really come out

it just makes it look like candy

you jus wanna touch it and run your hands down it and it's just kinda the icing on the cake

once everything's hard, we put it into what we call the oven

Get that epoxy to cure, really kind of bake it, and just get it to harden

put in the fin, screw in the vent, ship it out

we just love the idea of building something that's sustainable and long lasting and made by hand

kinda give you a deeper connection to the product over something you might buy on a shelf

When a customer gets the board

they feel it. They 100% feel the amount of work and the amount of passion that went into the board

So, I'm not really looking at hours and efficiency

I'm looking at like doing it right and enjoying it as we go