What a great weekend. Honestly, I had my mind on things other than work, like mowing the lawn and recovering from a delicious, lazy pub lunch. The sun was shining and it was looking to be a glorious afternoon in the garden. It was time to put some music on, so I got out my phone to stream some tunes and noticed a barrage of notifications on my screen...
The Second Coming of Glide. I found surfing at a relatively late age I was 14 when I really began to fall for the act of riding waves. I remember my first 'green' wave, ridden on a thick foam board during a school activity day at Sennen beach in the summer term of 2005. While riding straight to the sand was thrilling enough, the initial rush of dropping in was fleeting as the whitewater inevitably caught up, the moment of glide was but a moment. But that green wave was my first experience of extended glide of, what felt like, frictionless...
For those of you who don’t know, Imo has been Lignum’s Friday girl! She’s also Harry’s better half and recently became Mrs Robinson! Over the past year, during the highs and lows of starting a new business Imo has had the task of keeping us boys in check, chasing all manor of paperwork, generating folders, talking to the government and generally all the important stuff. If that doesn’t sound like enough work she is also a fully qualified ocean yacht master and professional sailor. She will be heading back to sea to skipper Sea Dragon on her next amazing adventure. eXXpedition...
The quality of a product reflects the skills of the craftsman, it also demonstrates how he understands and uses his tools. Last summer, we contacted Festool with some technical questions regarding problems we were having with achieving the right finish on the cedar skins of our boards. Western Red Cedar is a difficult timber to work with, in terms of getting good results from sanding, this is due to the fact that it has such a varying density between the growth rings. The softer layers of the earlywood sand much faster and show sander marks more severely than with the tougher...
The beauty of what we do is that we get to meet people from all walks of life with a similar connection, the ocean. [gallery ids="16881,16880,16879,16878,16877,16876,16870,16871,16872,16873,16874,16869,16868,16867"] We met Bruce at the London boat show in January and he was so inspired by Lignum craftsmanship that he wanted to give us a tree. Bruce owns a beautiful woodland just inland from Dover, with a herd of deer and a copious number of trees. One particular larch tree had to come down as it was encroaching on a nearby chestnut tree which needed more light to increase the chestnut crop for the deer to...
“We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to.” – Terry Swearingen What is an Ecoboard? In it’s essence, an Ecoboard is a high performance surfboard made from sustainable materials with as low an impact on the environment as possible. Ecoboards have a measurably reduced carbon footprint, they use renewable, recycled, and/or upcycled material inputs, and processes that reduce toxicity during manufacturing. For us this translates into making bespoke surfboards out of sustainably grown English Western Red Cedar sourced from the South West of Britain, glassed with a durable Epoxy resin with a high bio-based carbon content (Entropy Resins...
“Boats which endure” In 1987 Classic boat magazine defined the term Classic boat as “boats which endure”. Both of us, having spent time offshore on such vessels, began thinking about a high end luxury paddle board that would incorporate the look, feel and most importantly the endurance of a traditional classic yacht. The design challenge was to embody as much heritage and prestige of these iconic boats as possible in a wooden paddle board. We were fortunate enough to have the project commissioned by broadcaster, traveller and adventurer Ben Fogle, who was looking to replicate the craftsmanship in his father’s Canadian canoe. Clipper...
Lignum are excited to announce we will be going to the London Boat Show in January 2018! Over the past months we’ve been working on a prototype paddle board which has been commissioned by broadcaster, traveller and adventurer Ben Fogle! We’re so pleased with the result that we made the decision to display it along with our surfboards, paddles, and more at the show. We are so excited for you to come along and see all our kit first hand. We will be putting names into a hat for a random give away of up to 20 free tickets! To...
Lignum at Dartington! Build a Custom Wooden Surfboard Six days over three weekends: 20-21 January, 17-18 February & 17-18 March 10am-4pm, Chicken Shed Studios, Schumacher College £1,200, materials included. Glassing and polishing service optional for an additional £300 With Harry Robinson and Alen van Rooyen Build your own dream surfboard with the boys from Lignum Surfboards, who are passionate about creating fine, handcrafted wooden surfboards. Over six days you will learn about the components, shapes, profiles and contours of surfboards and how they work together to give you a great ride. You will walk away with a beautiful hollow wooden surfboard designed just for you and worthy...
Don’t reinvent the wheel, just realign it! The design challenge? To manufacture a strong, light and highly functional SUP paddle. Humans have been making paddles for hundreds of years, for use on Viking longships to heavily loaded Canadian express trade canoes. All of which were paddled with long and narrow blades despite the heavy loads that they were carrying. Why? The long narrow shape provided the necessary surface area whilst reducing the torque, resulting in less strain on the backs and shoulders of those using them. Fast forward to 2017 and we’ve kept the same teardrop profile and added some performance upgrades, including...
