Menuisier Surfboards

Why constructing surfboards in Senegal?

Senegal offers the opportunity for surfing, which, however, is almost exclusively reserved for tourists, as the Senegalese generally cannot afford imported surfboards. Moreover, with respect to surfboards the wear and tear is very high. By the same token, the means accessible to Senegalese surfers to repair their surfboards is limited. Therefore, the aim of this project was to find raw materials and production processes that show the necessary qualities which allow for the construction of surfboards in Senegal.

Menuisier = carpenter

It soon became clear that carpenters necessarily needed to be involved in this project. In collaboration with local carpenters in Dakar, a way was found to build surfboards out of the woods that are regionally accessible in Senegal.

Open Surf!

From our collaboration with Senegalese people, a construction plan for surfboards was achieved. With the aid of this construction plan Senegalese carpenters should be able to build surfboards independently in the future. The present construction plan as well as future ones are made available online and can be downloaded on menuisier-surfboards.com.

Proof of Concept

Although the project proved to be successful, much work still remains to be done so that the surfboards can be used by the Senegalese surf enthusiasts. In order to ensure the quality of the surfboards, a lot of development work is needed. This not only turns the project into a time consuming process but it also requests material resources. For this reason, the money which will be collected here will be used to advance the future development work, which, in turn, enables carpenters to produce further surfboards. Moreover, they should be given the possibility to test different materials and processing methods without running a financial risk. In other words, we need your support to advance this project!

Rewards

All rewards will find their way to you only after the next production phase of the project in Senegal. This is expected to take place in autumn this year.

Shirt and subject can be freely combined. Cuts for women are also available. The shirt cuts are shown here as an example and may vary beacuse we won’t be able to define the cuts before going to Senegal again. The same applies for the color gradient.

Print on spruce wood from images of the project. By direct printing on wood , each image is unique due to the combination with the wood grain.

Each print comes in the format of 50 x 33 cm including mounting system, description and signature.

After the auction you will get to choose one oft the print subjects.