Grain Surfboards Offers Wooden Surfboard Building Classes in Maine
Come Build Your Own Wooden Surfboard with the Builders at Grain Surfboards.
Randy and Mike railing up a couple longboards
Due to growing interest, Grain Surfboards is now offering wooden surfboard building classes right in our shop in York, Maine. You’ll learn alongside the same builders that craft our custom wooden surfboards from locally grown, sustainable white cedar. At the end of the seven-day class, each student will walk away with their own hand-built, wooden surfboard.
Throughout the week you will learn the following skills:
Each student will take home his/her own board ready for glassing and finishing on their own. Glassing demonstrations will be held in the evenings to help students with the basics. Materials used in the board and those to be taken home with the student are the same as we use in our Grain Home Grown Surfboard kits. The cost of the Home Grown kit ($670- $720 retail) is included in the course.
Students will have their choice of building our 9’ Root or 10′ Waterlog longboards. We’ll be installing a single fin box allowing the builder/surfer some room for personal preference as to fin placement. Students will be able select their own planks as well as use a mix of woods to glue up custom tail blocks. Two instructors will be available to guide each student through the easy step-by-step process to ensure that each board that leaves the shop will be a beautiful one of a kind surfboard that will last a lifetime. Our Wooden Surfboard building manual will also be distributed as part of the materials for the course.
Tuition for the week-long course is $1,525.00, which includes the cost of the Home Grown Surfboard kit.
This tuition covers 7 days of instruction, all materials, including glassing supplies, all necessary tools, shop use, as well as breakfast and lunch for each day. Students are responsible for their own dinner costs as well as accommodations, although we’re happy to recommend some nice places around the area.
Our neighbors at the shop
The Grain shop has plenty of room for each student to spread out and enjoy the process. We have a great mill shop complete with state of the art dust collection, a full kitchen, bathrooms, shower, wireless internet, and plenty of space outside to enjoy the sunshine. The shop is conveniently located within a short drive to the beach and surf.
Located just an hour north of Boston, York, Maine is a historic, coastal village with beaches, shops, great restaurants and lodging right in town.
Course Schedule is as follows:
Classes begin Sunday mornings and end the following Saturday
NOTE: Full payment is required to reserve a spot in one of our classes.
We’ll post more information on these surfboard building classes soon, but note that past classes have filled in just a few days, so please call or email to reserve your shaping stand soon.
Please feel feel free to call us at 207-457-5313 or email mike@grainsurfboards.com with any questions.
Look forward to seeing you at the shop!
Waves just 6 miles from the shop
March 9th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
beautiful shot of my (our) front yard you got there at the bottom, looks a lot warmer than it is now…
March 10th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Hi, I have a spot on the Wooden Boat School course in June and seeing this new news I’m curious as to what you might think are any pros or cons of taking the building course there or with you? I’ll probably give a call to chat with someone in the next day or two as well.
cheers mike
March 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Hey Mike. You should definitely call if you have questions we can answer. The class at Wooden Boat will certainly be a special week. Their venue is amazing as it is on a beautiful piece of property overlooking Penobscot Bay. Their boatshop is in an old carriage house and students have full access to the grounds and waterfront, the WB store, research library, their fleet of boats to use and more. They are also located in relative close proximity to places like Bar Harbor and Acadia State Park.
Our class really will be structured the exact same way, with the main difference being that we’ll be in our own shop here in Southern Maine, just 6 miles from the surf and an hour from Boston. Tuition for our class includes breakfast and lunch served at the shop. I suppose it’s also safe to say that there is a little more to do around the area if shopping and dining out is your style.
March 12th, 2008 at 12:55 am
great idea, teaching people. - i look forward to making a trip home this fall, hope i get some time to get in the water. had an epic day at short sands west last week. u guys rule.
cheers
ryan
March 12th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I would love a grain board,however, I am not a strong builder (read pathetic) and the price of a finished board is diff. for me. The class would make the price easier. Any possibility of offering night school or weekend classes that go over a month?
Love the Idea. Hope I can participate.
Chris
March 12th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Great idea, we definitely will consider that. Obviously it would only really work for people within driving distance. Keep an eye on the blog or sign up for our mailing list and we’ll let you know as soon as we schedule more classes. Thanks Chris.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:36 am
I am deployed over seas for the next six months. I am looking for something that I can spend my off hours doing, and seeing as how I really enjoy surfing I thought that I could try and build one out here in the desert. I searched on line and found your website. I was really stoked when I saw that you guys offered and building kit but after I clicked on it and read the first few sentences my stoked level droped pretty low. I am willing to order all of my own wood and I have all the equipment that I need to build one here on base. The only thing that I don’t have is a plan. I don’t really know where to start when trying to build a wooden board. Is there any way you guys can point me in the right direction?
Thank you fo ryour time,
A1C ” The Dirt Boy” Lee, Edward