Grain - Wood to Whisky to Water

Barrel staves are curved in every direction with not a parallel edge in sight. They're also saturated with scotch. Not only did we have to find a way to mill it into usable dimensions, we had to dry it out first. Throw in an epically cold winter and a simple woodstove for heat, and we were in for a real challenge.

It was obvious that we needed to highlight the true beauty of the oak on each board, and because of the density of oak, we knew that meant creating our own veneers and gluing them to a bed of cedar. But we decided to take things one step further and bookmatch all of the veneers from each stave, keeping all veneers in matching pairs, adding incredible detailed symmetry to each board.

But we wanted more then aesthetics and we were determined to find a way to use these barrel staves in a genuine, meaningful and structural way. As an homage to our boatbuilding past, we decided to make all of the internal frames, the true structure and defining shape of our boards, out of staves. Replacing marine plywood as the interior of our boards has always been a goal for us, using repurposed barrel staves checked every box. Add to that a tailblock and custom fins made from staves, and we feel truly proud and honored to put the Grain brand on each board.

 Each Glenmorangie Original Surfboard is made by hand in our shop in York Maine. Each board uses approximately 12 barrel staves yet only weighs a pound or two more then their full cedar counterpart. Click here from more information and to order your limited edition Glenmorangie Orginal today.