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| Founded | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | York, Maine |
| Products | Hollow wooden surfboards |
| Website | www |
Grain Surfboards is an American company based in York, Maine that manufactures hollow wooden surfboards. The surfboards are made primarily from northern white cedar, with some western red cedar added for color accent. Grain manufactures custom boards, [1] as well as selling kits and offering classes where surfers can build their own boards. [2]
Founded in 2005 in York, Maine, [3] Grain has boat building and cabinetry influences. [4] The first of Grain's boards were constructed in co-founder Mike LaVecchia's basement. [5] A New England magazine, N'East, featured a story about the startup, which was followed up by a report by the Associated Press in December 2005. [6] Around the same time, Clark Foam, a major manufacturer of blank foam surfboards, shut down after disagreements with California's Environmental Protection Agency. [6] This led surfers to rethink the environmental impact of their boards, and business at Grain picked up. [5] Brad Anderson joined the company as co-owner, and Grain moved into a workshop at Side Hill Farm in York. [7]
Grain has made a wooden version of Channel Islands Surfboards' 'Biscuit' since 2009. [6] The original Biscuit won the 2008 Surf Industry Manufacturers Association Award. [8] The Wood Biscuit is heavier than a fiberglass board, but the extra weight gives better momentum over choppy water. [9]
Grain launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2013 to raise funds for a bus and trailer to use as a mobile workshop for board building classes. [10] The campaign was successful, raising over $40,000 in one month. [10] In keeping with the company's green ethos, the bus is powered by alternative fuel. [11]
In 2017 Grain had to leave the workshop they had rented for over a decade. [12] They crowdfunded a deposit for the purchase of a new workshop, [12] but ultimately were unable to raise sufficient funds to buy the property. [13] Later in 2017, Grain was one of the founder members of the nonprofit trade group Maine Outdoor Brands. [14]
In 2018, Grain partnered with the Glenmorangie distillery create a limited edition of boards made from whisky barrels. [15] The board was made from Glenmorangie's whisky barrels, along with reclaimed western red cedar and Maine-grown northern white cedar. [16] Each board contained twelve barrel staves, which is half of a whisky barrel. [17]
New designs are drawn using 3D cad software. [4] Each board has an internal wooden frame onto which planks are glued before being sanded into shape. [18] The frame forms the backbone of the hollow board and is intricately designed like an airplane wing. [7] It takes up to 60 hours to construct a board, with many tiny pieces of wood used. [18] The final step is to finish the board with fiberglass cloth and epoxy resin, which is necessary to prevent the wood from soaking up water. [6]
The wood used to craft the boards is white cedar, grown locally in Maine, [1] and sustainably harvested. [19] Left-over wood is not wasted; shavings are collected for use as animal bedding, and off-cuts are used to make sea-sleds or skateboards. [19]
As of 2018 [update] , Grain had over 50,000 followers on Instagram, 12,000 on Facebook, and more than 7,000 newsletter subscribers. [2] Grain's website and social media presence have been praised as an example of using open communication on the internet to spread ideas and create customers. [20] As people attend classes with Grain and build their own boards, they share images of this on social media, which fuels further interest in Grain's surfboards. [21]
Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer, uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable for surfing are primarily found on ocean shores, but can also be found as standing waves in the open ocean, in lakes, in rivers in the form of a tidal bore, or in wave pools.
Joinery is a part of woodworking that involves joining pieces of wood, engineered lumber, or synthetic substitutes, to produce more complex items. Some woodworking joints employ mechanical fasteners, bindings, or adhesives, while others use only wood elements.
Bodyboarding is a water sport in which the surfer rides a bodyboard on the crest, face, and curl of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore. Bodyboarding is also referred to as Boogieboarding due to the invention of the "Boogie Board" by Tom Morey in 1971. The average bodyboard consists of a short, rectangular piece of hydrodynamic foam. Bodyboarders typically use swim fins for additional propulsion and control while riding a breaking wave.
A surfboard is a narrow plank used in surfing. Surfboards are relatively light, but are strong enough to support an individual standing on them while riding an ocean wave. They were invented in ancient Hawaii, where they were known as papa he'e nalu in the Hawaiian language, and were usually made of wood from local trees, such as koa. They were often over 460 cm (15 ft) in length and extremely heavy. Major advances over the years include the addition of one or more fins (skegs) on the bottom rear of the board to improve directional stability, and numerous improvements in materials and shape.
A skeg is a sternward extension of the keel of boats and ships which have a rudder mounted on the centre line. The term also applies to the lowest point on an outboard motor or the outdrive of an inboard/outboard. In more recent years, the name has been used for a fin on a surfboard which improves directional stability and to a movable fin on a kayak which adjusts the boat's centre of lateral resistance. The term is also often used for the fin on water skis in the U.S. It has been used for the vertical fin on seaplane hulls and floats. The wear-bar on the bottom of snowmobile ski may also be called a skeg.
Skimboarding or skimming is a boardsport in which a skimboard is used to glide across the water's surface to meet an incoming breaking wave, and ride it back to shore. There are currently 3 U.S. based competitive organizations including Premier Skim, Skim USA, and the United Skim Tour. Wave-riding skimboarders perform a variety of surface and air maneuvers, at various stages of their ride, out to, and back with, the wave. Some of these are known as "wraps", "big spins", "360 shove-its" and "180s". Unlike surfing, skimboarding begins on the beach by dropping the board onto the thin wash of previous waves. Skimboarders use their momentum to skim out to breaking waves, which they then catch back into shore in a manner similar to surfing.
A foilboard, also known as a hydrofoil board or foil surfboard, is a type of board used in water sports; it is distinct from surfboards in that it has a hydrofoil rather than fins mounted underneath. This hydrofoil design allows the surfboard and its rider to rise above the water’s surface, allowing for fast speeds and increased maneuverability in a wide range of surf conditions. Foilboards are becoming increasingly popular across many water sports, including surfing, kiteboarding, Windsurfing, and wakeboarding. Foilboards have also been used in competitions, with riders reaching speeds of up to 30 km/h while performing acrobatic maneuvers such as flips and twists.
George Hamilton Perkins Greenough is an influential surfer, known during the 1960s and 1970s for his work in film, and in surfboard design, fin characteristics, and other creations for the aquatic medium. The contributions of Greenough, along with Bob McTavish, to the development of short boards resulted in a number advances in surfboard shaping and other surfing technology.
Clapboard, also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping.
The riding of waves has likely existed since humans began swimming in the ocean. In this sense, bodysurfing is the oldest type of wave-catching. Undoubtedly ancient sailors learned how to ride wave energy on many styles of early boats. Archaeological evidence even suggests that ancient cultures of Peru surfed on reed watercraft for fishing and recreation up to five thousand years ago. However, standing up on what is now called a surfboard is a relatively recent innovation developed by the Polynesians. The influences for modern surfing can be directly traced to the surfers of pre-contact Hawaii.
A surfboard shaper is someone who designs and builds surfboards. The process of surfboard shaping has evolved over the years, and the shaper often tailors his or her work to meet the requirements of a client or a certain wave. Surfboard shapers can be independent or work in collaboration with mass-production companies.
Paddleboarding is a water sport in which participants are propelled by a swimming motion using their arms while lying or kneeling on a paddleboard or surfboard in the ocean or other body of water. Paddleboarding is usually performed in the open ocean, with the participant paddling and surfing unbroken swells to cross between islands or journey from one coastal area to another.
Tube riding is a term used by surfers to describe riding well inside the curve or barrel of a finely-shaped breaking wave. Under the right conditions, waves in some areas, such as the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii, form a moving "tube" or cylinder as they break.
Standup paddleboarding (SUP) is a water sport born from surfing with modern roots in Hawaii. Standup paddleboarders stand on boards that are floating on the water and use a paddle to propel themselves through the water. The sport was documented in a 2013 report that identified it as the outdoor sporting activity with the most first-time participants in the United States that year. Variations include flat water paddling, racing, surfing, whitewater SUP, yoga, and fishing.
An alaia is a thin, round-nosed, square-tailed surfboard ridden in pre-20th century Hawaii. The boards were about 200 to 350 cm long, weighed up to 50 kg (100 lb), and generally made from the wood of the Koa Tree. They are distinct from modern surfboards in that they have no ventral fins, and instead rely on the sharpness of the edges to hold the board in the face of the wave.
This glossary of surfing includes some of the extensive vocabulary used to describe various aspects of the sport of surfing as described in literature on the subject.[a][b] In some cases terms have spread to a wider cultural use. These terms were originally coined by people who were directly involved in the sport of surfing.
Bellyboarding is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a bodyboard on the crest, face, and curl of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore.
New Zealand is a popular surfing destination, with a long history of the sport and a varied coastline with locations suitable for all types of surfing. The West coast is notably consistent, with big swells and high winds, whereas the east coast is dominated by cyclone season swells; the North island is notably warmer than the South, but less consistent; mean temperatures range from 7 °C to 20 °C, depending on location and time of year. Winter is more consistent than Summer, with a southeasterly swell. The climate of New Zealand is varied, so different surf conditions are encountered across the islands.
The Olo, Olo board or Olo surfboard is a traditional long Hawaiian surfboard that was used by Hawaiian chieftains for surfing. The Olo surfboard was the largest out of the three types of traditional surfboards that were used by the Hawaiian people. The Olo is twice as long as the modern surfing longboard, measuring up to 5.18 metres (17.0 ft) long, 16.5 inches wide and nearly 6 inches thick. The board was more than 76.20 kilograms (168.0 lb) and was used for surfing large waves and even tsunamis, the boards were strictly meant for Hawaiian Chieftains and Kings.