Surf Re-Evolution Dates Locked Down

We had such a great time last year holding the Surf Re-Evolution event at the beach and at the farm where our shop is located that we’re doing it again this year. But the 400-plus, amped-up surfers and other friends that came last fall (video) inspired us to pull out the stops a little. So this year, we’ve decided to make it a two-day event, with a full day at the beach and a day at the shop. Come for both, come for one - you won’t be sorry. We’ll have some more invited guests whose brains you can pick for tidbits about how they’ve approached the making of surfboards from a new angle - whether it be in the realm of design, sustainability, materials, or process. We’ll have music, food, movies, art, drink and more. Save the dates: September 8 & 9 and check the Surf Re-Evolution page for details as we have them.

Lovin' New Boards

A few times each year, we’re able to complete a new board design, which is always pretty exciting for us - partly because new boards are just awesome to have in our demo fleet, and partly because we get to see how other people react to them. Recently, Nick took a new version of our noserider, The Cutwater, down to Montauk and shared it with Alek Parker and Mikey DeTemple. We’d originally built this board to a customer’s specification, but had some ideas for making it even better, and though it says a lot that Alek stayed out on it all day and then pestered Nick to leave it with him, the great pics Nick got say even more. Everybody who’s surfed it seems blown away by it’s performance, and can’t believe how well they can drive it from the nose. Soon to come is a retro-outline pig that we’ve added some evolved features to. The semi-ugly, aptly named Pig stormed the beach breaks in the late 50’s blowing everyone away with their turning and carving abilities, and have been refined by thoughtful shapers like Gene Cooper in recent years to become a cult-board deeply loved by it’s followers. We think this one’s going to be a new favorite of ours too.

One of a Kind

In his spare time, John finished up a board for himself that he’s been planning for a couple of years. Inspired by the s-curve patterns of Greg Noll, he joined up some matching top and bottom planks on a 10-6 Northern Pintail to make a one-of-a-kind board that really shows off his skill as a board-builder. Custom features such as these are often requested on our custom boards, and though we have a menu of options that our customers pick from, stuff like this is simply not on the list. But if you have a dream board in mind that you’d like to see in wood… just ask. We’ll try almost anything

Offcuts Initiative

In keeping with the parsimonious habits of the New England wood shop, we have a lot of small pieces of wood piled around the shop in every spare corner in case they might come in handy for something. Inconveniently tripping over scrap wood turns out to be a form of forced inspiration that has led to a group of products which have become part of our “Offcuts Initiative” as all that scrap wood has gotten a new life as hand-planes and sea sleds.

Most recently we’ve converted those dusty piles into skateboards made by a local deck-presser. The Grain Cider Hill Skateboard has gotten so much attention and has been such a great way to make sure that we’re using the resource wisely that we decided to hire Courtney on and bring her operation right into our own shop. By pressing leftover veneers of wood too thin for surfboards onto her sustainable-certified maple decks and applying eco-resin bamboo-cloth grip finish to the decks, she’s become the latest change-agent in the Grain family that helps us to do the best we can to do the right thing and still make great-performing stuff. Look for the Offcuts Initiative logo on the Grain site to know that you’re “part of the solution”.

New T's - Again

In our on-going search for the perfect eco-apparel partner, we recently got together with another local company based just south of us in Portsmouth, NH to come out with a new batch of Grain Logo T’s that are 50% recycled PET and 50% organic cotton. Ecologically speaking, cotton’s a pretty rotten crop and amazingly, products labeled as “organic cotton” can be up to 70% non-organic. But all the cotton used in these Earthtec T’s is 100% organic which helped us make the call to put our name on them.

Surfboard Building Classes

There’s still room in some of our surfboard building classes, so check your schedule and see what works for you. Also keep an eye on the Class Pages for future announcements of fin-making, hand plane and paipo classes too!

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