Wooden Surfboards reinvented
Shaping surfboards is an art and there’s certainly some romanticism
connected to it. You know: Creating something out of nothing, living
close to the sea, hanging out with the surfers and being one, providing
the base for awesome surf: Great surfboards in a variety of shapes, each
made for a certain type of wave.. But the other side of it are usually
toxic materials, toxic liquids, bad air in the workshop, white powder
that comes from sanding the boards into the final shape all over your
skin, slowly diffusing those chemicals into your organism.
Stefan from
Kun_tiqi Surfboards
is a shaper, he is a surfer and though born thousands of miles from the
sea, he now lives close to some of the most beautiful beaches in
Cantabria, Spain. Entering his workshop feels different. It mostly
smells like wood – even though he admits: “I repair lots of conventional
surf boards so I have the usual repertoire of chemicals. My workshop
does stink sometimes too, but I hope it gets less as more and more
people surf wood instead.”
His own label – Kun_tiqi Surfboards – wants to provoke a different
thinking. In the old days of surfing surf boards were made of wood. They
were heavy, huge and could never provide the performance of modern
surfboards. Then came a revolutionary time for surfboard shaping and
connected to it a different style of surfing: The aera of boards made
of polyurethane or polystyrene foam covered with layers of fiberglass,
cloth and polyester orepoxy resin, made for more radical turns, shorter
and lighter boards arrived on the stage.
Stefan wants to prove that a step back can mean a step forward too –
just in a different direction. His boards are made of wood, balsa wood
in that case, but constructed in a hollow structure which provides more
stability than foam boards while maintaining the same performance,
weight and feel in the water. The only difference: “Surfers who started
riding my boards were surprised by how much they float in comparison to
regular boards. In terms of maneuverability and speed they are the same
though.”
“We now offer different shapes – ranging from a 9” performance
longboard, over noseriders, evolution boards, retro single fins, fish
boards down to shortboards everything – each made for performance while
lasting longer than conventional boards. Not a single customer managed
to snap a balsa board yet – they are built to last and perform…”
If he’s not in the workshop caring glassing his balsa boards he’s
surfing the area around Santander – often using his bike to get there.
“Cantabria is a beautiful area. It’s still relatively free from crowds,
people are relaxed here. And slowly people start to be more conscious
about their environment too – they start to realize that if it stays
that way we have a little paradise here at the north coast of Spain.”
This is taken from :
www.oldyoungsea.com a great site about an upcoming film of traveling and surfing from the South of France through Spain and down into Portugal. This is just one of the many stories told along the way. Check it out, Stefan and his Kun tigi Surfboards have been on this blog many times in the past.
