Catch waves with 20% off!

Why Surfing a Board You Made Yourself Hits Different

Gary Wells

9/29/20263 min read

handmade surfboard
handmade surfboard

Why Surfing a Board You Made Yourself Hits Different

Sep 29, 2026 · @Gary

There's nothing quite like the thrill of surfing a board you've made yourself.

I've caught plenty of waves on boards from a shop or off Marketplace. But paddling into one on a board you built with your own hands, and feeling it actually work under your feet, is a different feeling altogether. The first time it happened, all I could think was: this actually works. How cool is this?

What the ocean does for you

I don't know exactly what it is about the ocean, but whenever I've been for a surf or even just a swim, I come out happier. I'm calmer. I can tackle the day's problems better. I feel like a better person, a better husband and a better dad.

I'm not a very spiritual person, but it feels like the ocean washes away whatever you were carrying when you paddled out. Whether that's actually true or not, that's how it feels afterwards.

Surfing is an escape. When you're out there concentrating on not stuffing up the next wave, there's no room in your head for anything else going on in your life.

Blood, sweat and tears

Making your own board gives you a real sense of achievement, because it isn't easy. It takes a long time, a lot of hard work, a lot of effort and a lot of mistakes.

There are days you feel like throwing the whole thing in the bin because you've stuffed something up and now you have to go back and fix it. And when you finally get it in the water, it might not be perfect. It'll have its own character.

But when you catch a wave on it, it hits differently. So much blood, sweat and tears have gone into that board that riding it feels like an achievement in itself. And the first thing you want to do is make another one, and make the second one better than the first.

A board that's a piece of you

A board you've made is an extension of you as a person. You've put your heart and soul into it. It's the shape you wanted, in the colours you like, and you've thought about every part of it.

Surfing already gives you a connection to the ocean. When the board under you is one you built, that connection goes deeper.

The salvage way

I'll be honest: making your own board isn't the easy option. It's hard to find the time, and it's a lot simpler to walk into a shop and buy one. It's probably safer too, because if you stuff it up, you've wasted your money and materials, and it can end up costing more than a brand new board you know will perform.

That's where salvaging comes in. A few times now, instead of buying a new foam blank, I've grabbed an old board nobody wanted. I strip all the fibreglass off, reshape the foam, sand it back and re-glass it.

It's still a board you've made yourself, but you're not spending a couple of hundred bucks on a blank. It's cheaper, and it's not as painful if you stuff it up. And the joy of finishing it and getting it in the water is exactly the same. You feel like you've achieved something pretty special, even more so if you make and glass on your own fins as well.

You don't need to be a pro

Think back to the old days in Hawaii, where surfing began. They were riding solid planks of wood, and they still got waves. Pretty much anything can be surfed if you want it to be.

I'm not a pro by any means. If my board goes along the wave and I can do a few basic turns on it, I'm happy. Maybe there's a little difference between a professionally shaped board and mine, but at my level of surfing it doesn't make a difference to how I surf.

So if you've been thinking about it, grab an old board and give it a go. The first wave you catch on something you made yourself is worth every mistake along the way.