Grain Surfboards Celebrates 1,000 Surfer-built Boards
Build-it, Surf-it: Grain Surfboards of York, Maine celebrates over 1000 Wooden Surfboards built by their customers and students, as Home Grown Surfboard Kits and during Grain Board-building Classes.
Grain Surfboards was founded when the owners had the inspiration to build their own surfboards rather than buy manufactured boards. Feeling that the fun and challenge of building-your-own was too good to keep to themselves, they began offering DIY kits in 2006, and to hold classes at their shop in Maine in 2008.
You could call it a DIY secret club of sorts. A group of people from all walks of life connected by one thing - the experience of building a wooden surfboard themselves, and the thrill of surfing it for the first time. Grain’s Home Grown Wooden Surfboard Kits are aimed at surfers of all skill levels, ages and backgrounds. “We don't think there is a typical customer,” Co-owner Brad Anderson says. “We've literally had brain surgeons and high-school seniors do it. Seasoned pro-surfers have build these boards and people that have never surfed a day, but love a challenging project that results in a gracefully shaped piece of functional art they can brag about building themselves.”
Each Home Grown Kit is put together by hand in Maine from locally grown, sustainably harvested northern white cedar. The kits come with all the materials you need to build your own board: board frame, cedar planks and rail strips, fin box, leash plug, glue, epoxy, fiberglass, rubber gloves and a very detailed instruction manual. They are available to purchase at online stores, as well as at Grain's headquarters in Maine. Each board takes approximately 50 hours to build, but will be around for a lifetime of waves.
Grain continues to support do-it-yourselfers by adding new surfboard kits and classes every season – all aimed at teaching like-minded others how to give wood its well-deserved place in the lineup.
To view the variety of boards available to build at home or in classes, please visit the U-Build-It section of their website. www.grainsurfboards.com
