Surfboards of different colours leaning on a wall, waiting for fins

The shaping bay

One room, one shaper, about 140 boards a year

From a block of foam to your car roof

A hand guiding an electric planer across a white foam blank against a blue wall
The blankA PU or EPS block with a wooden stringer glued through it. Bastien pencils the outline from a template and cuts it with a handsaw.
A shaper in a respirator sanding the edge of a foam board in a cloud of dust
ShapedRocker, concave and rails, by planer, then by sanding block. About six hours for a shortboard, a full day for a log.
The glossy rails of three glassed surfboards lit against a black background
GlassedFibreglass cloth and resin, a hot coat, then a gloss if you ask for one. The warm room holds 24 °C while it cures.
A finished white surfboard standing upright in the dunes beside a wooden fence
FinishedSanded, signed on the stringer and carried over the dune for its first session before it goes on the rack.

7 metres of blue wall

A shaper in a cap crouched over two surfboards, fitting the fins

Side lights at 90 cm. Low and sideways, so every hollow in the foam throws a shadow you can see.

Two stands. One is a 1970s door on trestles. It has outlasted three planers.

The fan. Big as a car wheel, and it still loses to the dust on a log day.

PU

Polyurethane

Heavier, so it drives through chop and holds a line on the bigger days at La Gravière. White, yellows slowly in the sun, and it's what most shortboards on the rack are made from.

EPS

Expanded polystyrene

Lighter and floatier, glassed with epoxy. Lovely in small summer waves and on fish. Add €60 to a custom board, and it dents a little easier.

Door up on Saturday mornings

From 9:00 to 13:00 you can stand by the stand and watch a board come out of the foam. Bring a coffee if you want the good spot.

How to find usWhat's on the rack
Surfboards racked under a reed roof in an open-sided hutA surf shop with surfboards stacked along the walls above rails of clothes