Obeche is a West African hardwood timber that comes from Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Cameroon. Although it’s slightly heavier than paulownia, it’s still a lightweight timber, plus it has a high strength to weight ratio and will flex like paulownia. The trees grow in sandy, alkali conditions, so the wood can tolerate salt water and dries out well, which explains its popularity in boat building. It also works easily and has an attractive, pale finish. The main advantage of obeche though, is that it is easily available in the UK and isn’t prohibitively expensive.

Warren at Woodstock timber supplies in Falmouth was a fantastic help and is a font of knowledge about all things wood. He’s also pretty clued up on alaias and hand planes, so is a great point of contact for anyone wanting to shape their own board.

The proof of the board is in the riding, and my obeche alaia floats like a dream.

The Joskes hail from Coff’s Harbour on the coast of northern New South Wales.

In 1970, Paul began a surfboard business and also began, after a while, to grow a family with his delightful wife Jenny.

Paul evolved into one of surfing’s finest craftsmen. He’s meticulous to a fault; indeed, meticulous to the point where churning boards out to make a living meant not many boards were churned, relatively, and Jenny has always kept the family solvent by teaching.

The result of this familial collaboration is a succession of beautiful surfboards, refined shapes, perfectly finished. When a man can shape by eye to 1/64th of an inch, and inspects his glass jobs with a magnifying glass, you know he cares. That such obsessiveness might be seen as a little too much is beside the point. As my dad always said, if a job is worth doing…

Paul and Sage brought a few boards with them on their visit, with one board in particular the star of the show.

A 7’4 gun, this board was a work of art.

Victorian surfer Peter Filmore has long admired the Joske formula, and a couple of years ago had Paul build a paulownia gun, chambered and oiled, but not glassed. Because paulownia does not soak water, the experiment was to see how it all went. Two years later the board is fine – good as new, ship shape and still ridden regularly.

In the meantime, Pete had been collecting agave stems, the woody flowering centre of the agave plant. These stems, when dried, are light and strong, but you need quite a few to contemplate a board. Diligently, over the intervening years, enough stems were collected to send up to Paul, in hope.

This year a critical mass was achieved and the board was made. Paul graciously gave me some step-by-step shots of the board’s construction. Together with a couple of backyard snaps from me, a little of the board’s beauty is there to behold. It’s a wonderful thing.

Enjoy.

One day we’ll meet in person and share the stoke.