MAKING WAVES

In his Cornwall workshop, James Otter makes surfboards the traditional way – from wood grown in UK forests

In a bid to make surfboards more sustainable, James Otter began crafting beautiful designs from British wood. Ten years later, his boards are in great demand among top surfers.

“Making that first board had brought together two of my great loves: for the sea, and for trees”

It’s still fresh in my memory: the feeling of making my first wooden surfboard. There was the excitement of what I was making; the fact I was going to play in the ocean with it. Then at last walking into the water with my new board and riding the final pulse of energy as waves that had travelled thousands of miles folded and carried me with them as they crashed to the shore. All on a piece of wood that I had shaped myself, by hand.

It was my final year at university and I swore to myself then that this was going to remain a part of my life in some shape or form forever. I never looked back.

Making that first board had brought together two of my great loves: for the sea, and for trees. I grew up in Buckinghamshire, a long way from the ocean, but thankfully each summer we would make a family pilgrimage to the Cornish coast. It was on these holidays that I had my first taste of playing in the energy of the surf, experiencing the exhilarating feeling of being carried towards the beach by the rolling waves. From the first ride, I was hooked. My other great passion was trees. As long as I can remember, I have had an affinity with woodlands. When you walk among trees, you’re transported to another world. The smell of the earth, the sound of the branches swaying in the wind and the crunching of leaves underfoot all bring about a sense of calm and wonder.

It felt natural for me to explore the connection I felt with trees, so, in my early teens, I began crafting things from wood, from skate ramps to walking sticks and everything in-between.

CAREER OF THE HEART

Following my father’s mantra – “Stick to what you enjoy and you’ll end up doing something you love” – I took a degree in designing and making at Plymouth University.

Most of my time was spent learning to make furniture, but I took any chance I could to head over the Tamar Bridge and back to Cornwall, to the coastline I’d grown so fond of during my childhood. There I explored and learned more about where would be good spots to surf in the ever-changing weather conditions that sweep through the south west of the UK.

Cornwall is fortunate to be a peninsula that pokes out into the North Atlantic, and is exposed to more swell than the rest of mainland Britain, with the exception of Scotland’s northern shores, which are considerably colder. As a result, surfing first took a real hold on this corner of the country and the coastline is