Matthew Kramer, who built a 6′.4″ fish,and Lewin de Villiers, who built a 6′.3″ egg, showcase the beautiful boards they made.

Inspirational. That’s the best word I can think of to describe the experience of being part of  Groundswell Wooden Surfboard’s first board building course. Five guys literally lived hollow wooden surfboards for a week at Imhoff Farm Village in Kommetjie, taking a pile of planks and shaping them into stunning wooden surfboards.

I’m totally inspired and humbled by the amazing group of guys who joined up for the first course: The two Patrick’s, Lewin and Matthew demonstrated buckets of enthusiasm, commitment, engagement, skill and craftsmanship. The result is four boards that are truly beautiful and a credit to the craft of wooden board building. Check out the gallery below for some great visuals of the location, how things unfolded and the boards produced.

What’s been great about this course is that it has shown how a group of guys with no experience in board building can craft their own wooden boards that are not only functional, but also highly individualized works of art.

The course has also crystallized something for me that I think I’ve known for a while without being able to articulate. Watching four guys at work making their own boards – rather than being the one building a board – showed me that there’s something very meaningful in the process. It’s not just about producing a surfboard that is pleasing to look at, although that is an important end result. The process of craftsmanship that the guys engaged in seems to me to be about far more – it is a process of expressing human qualities that we all have, but which maybe often don’t have expression in our daily lives. It’s about connecting the movement of our hands with our brains, of creativity, of expressing passion and love through the creation of something that is so closely connected to surfing, an activity which we are all deeply connected to. Seen this way each board is a a journey, really, and one I’ll gladly take over and over again.

But don’t take my word for it. Check out the pictures below and write to groundswellsurfboards@gmail.com if you’d like to sign up for a course. Click here for our course schedule for the rest of 2013.

The first day of our May board-building class began Monday 6 May at Imhoff Farm Village in Kommetjie, Cape Town. Four guys, surrounded by paddocks of bleating goats, neighing horses and cool-looking camels got to grips with their chosen shapes – an 11′ longboard, a 6’4″ fish and two 6′.4″ eggs. Wood surfboard decks and bottoms where laminated, profiles cut and frames built and laminated to the wood. The consensus was that four very beautiful boards are going to come out of the workshop by Saturday when the course ends. The guys were stoked.

Tomorrow is a rail building day and it looks like there will be time for course participants to surf in between the glue drying. Yup, apart from building boards in a rural spot surrounded by mountains, we’re also close enough to cooking waves to allow for a surf in between the work.

Good news is that we have another course in June. Read about it here and sign up before it fills up.

It’s been a very busy few months at Groundswell Wooden Surfboards. We’ve been hard at work building custom boards and preparing for our courses in May, June and beyond. The gallery below has a selection of some of the boards we’ve made recently and some pictures of how we build them.

Resin on wood: I love seeing the grain stand out when the first brush of resin goes on a new hollow wood surfboard. Beautiful and a really rewarding part of building a wood surfboard.

Here’s a head’s up: there’s a new hang out in the village and the locals love it! Yup, Ours Cafe in Kalk Bay has been open for the last few months and has quickly established itself as the place to get scrumptious pastries, wholesome food and award-winning coffee.

The guys behind it are wonderfully committed – last year they opened up in a converted garage next to the old Dutch Reformed Church (now the Kalk Bay Theatre) and earned a reputation for pastries (I was especially partial to the bacon and sweet chilli sauce croissant) and coffee. Now they’re above the garage in bigger premises renovated with passion and innovation to create a stylish and relaxed feel. The indoor premises open up into a garden-style outside area with trees and views of the sea. Ours is open all day and also for dinner. When I saw Mr Chef himself swimming at Dalebrook the other day he got my mouth watering with the menu for the evening, which included fresh tuna just off the boat. Going home to baked potato and salad just wasn’t the same.

You’ll find them a  short way up Rosmead Avenue’s cobbled street, next to Prince Edward Mansions. It’s a stone’s throw away from Kalk Bay Reef, which is fitting because it’s a surfer run establishment. I’m sure I’ve spotted some of the stoke that comes from being spat out of a deep reef pit in the passion of the place.

Of course, in the interests of full disclosure, there is a Groundswell Wood Surfboard hanging on the wall, pictured here. It’s close to my heart to have a board displayed at Ours because I grew up, also a stone’s throw away, in the rectory opposite the reef and still spend a lot of time in Kalk Bay.

Wood is wood, right? Nope. Just take a look at the grain on this 9’7″ hollow wooden longboard and you’ll understand. Even looking at the rough timber it was possible to see there was going to be a beautiful grain in the piece of Western Red Cedar used for this board, but it wasn’t until glassing that it really started to shine. The lighter colour wood strips are poplar and the contrast works well. Sold at the The Corner Surf Shop, Cape Town’s oldest surf shop.

Surfboard and table made by Groundswell Wood Surfboards.

The first 9’6” longboard made by Groundswell Wood Surfboards has long been on display at Pisces Divers. What’s worth a mention now is that Pisces Divers has moved to amazing new premises in Simonstown.

The building housing the dive centre boasts huge wooden sliding doors with the original fittings – above which hangs the Groundswell longboard (watch it being hang-fived here) – and massive Oregon pine roof beams that ooze character and style.

Situated 200m before the Simonstown Railway station on Main Road, the space was on display for the first time at a roof wetting party last week. It is stunning!

It’s big enough for Pisces to run a full dive centre complete with retail space and coffee shop. They’re minutes away from excellent shore dive sites or from their launch site to deeper reefs and wrecks with their dive boat.

I’m stoked to have a board on the wall of such a character-filled building and business.

And lastly, the table pictured above was also made by Groundswell. It’s nearly 3m long and made out of beautiful Oregon pine, standing as a centre piece in the middle of the shop.

Pictured here is a stoked Donovan Seymour, the winner of a Groundswell Wood Surfboard that was up for grabs in a partnership with Pakalolo’s restaurant and bar in Hout Bay and Jack Black’s craft beer.

Over the last three months, the beautiful twin-keel hollow wooden fish has been mounted on the wall at Pakalolo’s. Every time someone ordered a pint of Jack Black’s craft beer, their name was entered for the draw.

On Tuesday night the pints of Jack Black’s craft beer flowed freely as Pakalolo patrons keen to win the board made their last gulps in the hope of getting lucky. One guy I spoke to at the bar had put down five pints by 7pm.

But it was a thrilled Donovan whose name was drawn from the thousands of entries. He exploded into a jig in front of the DJ and performed multiple fist pumps. With his Movember mo, you just couldn’t take the smile off his face and it was great to see. A more stoked dude you would not have found in the whole of Cape Town.

Donovan described how he had seen the board while at Pakalolo’s on Friday night with friends. “I just thought to myself that’s mine,” he said. And it was. Donovan even hopped on his scooter and traveled across Cape Town from the West Coast to attend the draw.

He has won a board that could never be replicated and is a global one-of-a-kind. It is made from South African-grown redwood, with the bottom of the board made up of two planks of bookmarked timber cut with a very wide saw from the same piece of wood. The top is made from South African-grown Japanese Cedar and redwood. Click here and here to see more pictures of the board that Donovan won.

Groundswell Wood Surfboards would like to thank Stefan Richter from Pakalolo’s restaurant and bar in Hout Bay and Jack Black’s craft beer for pulling off an awesome raffle and great evening.

It’s great to get local support from Pakalolo’s and great to see a delicious Cape Town-based craft beer go from strength to strength.

Coffee table in Purple Heart, Poplar and Cherry. 165cm long X 43 cm wide X 35cm high. R3,000. Contact groundswellsurfboards@gmail.com

Groundswell Wood Surfboards has launched a range of home decor and furniture inspired by surfing and the sea. The initial range includes surfboard-shaped coffee tables with contrasting wood lines, surfboard-shaped clocks and barometers, magazine racks that imitate swell lines, and key ring and hat holders in surfboard shapes. We have stock, but can custom make if what you need is not available. Shipping and postage available countrywide. Contact groundswellsurfboards@gmail.com

Pakalolo restaurant and bar in Hout Bay have an excellent promotion going, in association with Jack Black beer. Visit the bar and buy a pint of Jack Black and you could be in line to win the surfboard pictured here – a beautiful, handcrafted hollow wood twin-keel fish made by Groundswell Wood Surfboards.

Jack Black, a Cape Town based craft beer company inspired by traditional recipes from America to England, have their distinctive logo glassed into the board, which is made from some striking pieces of South African redwood, perfectly bookmarked with character-filled knots and a swirling grain.

All you have to do for your grab at this collector’s item board is to visit Pakalolo – situated at the bottom of Chappies in Hout Bay – and order a pint of delicious and distinctive Jack Black.

The draw takes place at a party on 27 November, so Christmas is definitely coming early for one lucky beer drinker. The more Jack Black you order the more tickets you get.