A stones throw away from a quaint pebble beach and set beneath mature trees, Charlie’s modest workshop can be found tucked away behind a living willow fence complete with arch. A small stream runs past the vegetable patch alongside.
Charlie is reading Marine Engineering at Plymouth University. He is a competent waterman, particularly in sailing, despite suffering a freak injury to his back when he was younger from which he is only now starting to feel symptom free.
Having learned from established local shaper Ryan Hervé, Charlie’s first notable foray into eco-surf craft construction was a surfboard made from recycled wine corks. Later, his much celebrated project using an invasive seaweed as part of a board build caught the attention of some of the world’s largest surf brands and global surf magazines. More recently he was invited by the World Surf League to build a board for an exhibition heat for one of the stops on tour.
The detrimental environmental impact of standard polyurethane based foam boards is well documented and with only one UK supplier delivering standard blanks to Jersey, Charlie has had to be creative to maintain the ethos of sustainability behind his surf craft construction.
Charlie forages seaweed from the beach, drying it before crushing it into a powder. Once mixed with chemicals it’s poured into a custom wooden mould secured with ratchet straps. The resulting blank has a tinge of green and is slightly softer than regular foam, but it works perfectly and has significantly less impact on the environment.
Charlie’s main issue is the large quantity of seaweed required to make enough foam for shaping. Given that he collects it himself, he struggles to keep up with the rate that he is designing and building his sustainable surf craft.
Charlie is therefore keen to ensure nothing goes to waste, using every last piece of his precious foam. He makes entire surf craft from offcuts - such as his 1960’s inspired knee board. Also, local surfer Joe Davies stocks Charlie’s hand blades made from discarded timber and old pallet boards.
In these images, Charlie sourced a 9’ Bing triple stringer that had snapped about a third of the way down from the nose, transforming it into a 5’4” twin fin.
You can follow Charlie’s story via his Instagram.
