Bestseller
Longboard
9'0" – 10'2" · single fin
Classic glide. Heavy rolled nose, soft 50/50 rails, and a Greenough-style flex tail. Made for mellow Cornish point days and noseriding small reform.
from £820
DRIFTWOOD
Newquay · North Cornwall · Shaping since 2001
Shaped by hand.
Tuned to your wave.one at a time.
A one-shaper workshop in Newquay building custom surfboards to order. Longboards, mid-lengths, twin-fins, performance shortboards and wooden hollow builds — every shape drawn for the rider who'll ride it.
25yrs
On the rack
4–6 wk
Made to order
1 hand
Every shape
EPS
+ eco-resin
01 — The shaper
One rack. One pair of hands. One board at a time.
Driftwood is a single-shaper workshop on the edge of Newquay. No production line, no apprentices feeding boards through a machine — just one craftsman at the rack, two days a board, every blank planed by hand under the side-lights.
We started in a Polzeath garage back in 2001, shaping for friends and the odd local who'd worn out a factory pop-out. Twenty-five years later we're in a proper bay behind the Tregunnel estuary, but the way the boards get made hasn't changed. Outline drawn on the wall. Foam pulled from the rack. Planer, surform, sanding block. Done when it feels right.
Every board is built for one rider — your weight, your home break, the waves you actually surf — not a sticker, not a celebrity name. If you want something off the rack, there are good shops down the road. If you want a board that's yours, come and have a chat.
02 — The shapes
Five shapes, endlessly tuned.
Starting points, not catalogue numbers. Every dimension — length, width, thickness, rocker, fin setup — is dialled in for the rider. Prices are starting points too; figured-glass logos and wood inlays cost extra.
Most ordered
Mid-length
7'0" – 8'6" · single + 2
Our most-ordered shape. Down rails, low entry rocker, plenty of paddle. The board you'll ride 90% of the year on the North coast.
from £720
Twin-fin
5'6" – 6'4" · keel or upright
Loose, skatey, fast through fat sections. Wide point forward, low tail rocker. Pure speed on chest-high Fistral runners.
from £660
Performance shortboard
5'8" – 6'2" · thruster
Modern tuned outline shaped to your weight and home break. Refined rocker, vee-to-double-concave bottom. Built to be ridden hard.
from £640
Showpiece
Wooden hollow
Made-to-order · 6 wks
Cedar and paulownia chambered build. Hollow inside, glassed in eco-resin, finished with hand-rubbed Tung oil. A heirloom board.
from £1,450
Something else?
Got a shape in your head?
Hulls, fishes, displacement noseriders, alaias, retro guns — if it's possible in foam or wood, we'll build it. Send us a sketch.
03 — How a board gets made
Sketch to surf in four to six weeks.
01
Chat
Phone call or a coffee in the bay. We talk about your home break, your weight, your style, what you've ridden before — and what you wish you had under your feet.
02
Design
Outline drawn on the wall, dimensions agreed, fin setup chosen. You see the foam blank pulled from the rack before a saw touches it.
03
Shape
Two days on the rack with planer, surform and sanding block. Rails tuned by hand under the side-lights. No CNC, no copy machine.
04
Glass
Eco-resin lamination with hot coats and a gloss polish, or sanded matte if you'd rather. Logos hand-cut and laid under the glass.
05
Wax up
Picked up from the bay or posted UK-wide. We'll come down the beach with you on the first session if it's local.
·
25 years on the rack
Started shaping in a Polzeath garage in 2001. Now in a proper bay behind the Tregunnel estuary.
·
EPS + eco-resin
Lighter, stronger blanks and a bio-based resin that smells like pine, not chemistry. Standard PU still available.
·
Made to order
Every board built for one rider. Four to six weeks from sketch to glassed and ready.
·
Repairs welcome
Ding repairs, fin box replacements, full restorations. Drop it in or post it down — turnaround usually a week.
04 — The bay
A small bay, a lot of foam dust.
Drop in between 9 and 5 on a weekday — the kettle's usually on. Watch a board get shaped, hold the blanks, see the wood stock for the hollow builds, ask anything.
From a recent build
“Ordered a 7'4" mid-length after a forty-minute chat about my dodgy back and how often I make it down from Bristol. Six weeks later it was on the roof rack. Paddles for days, turns way better than I deserve. The only board I'll ride this year.”
Sam W. · Bristol · ordered Spring 2026
05 — Start a build
Come down to
the bay.
Phone usually answered between 9 and 5, Monday to Friday. If we're mid-shape we'll call you back at the end of the day — leave a message, don't take it personally.