Ollie Cooper - UK Surfer, Shaper and Friend of Yonder
We met Ollie a couple of years ago in Cornwall whilst paying a visit to Finisterre and OPEN at Wheal Kitty Workshops in St Agnes. Wheal Kitty is a little industrial estate on top of the cliffs on the North Coast of Cornwall and is home to the Finisterre offices and Surfers Against Sewage HQ and until recently, one of our favourite spots, the truly visionary OPEN.
On the racks in the shops were an array of beautiful, hand crafted surfboards from a range of world renowned shapers. Everything from high performance shortboards by Simon Anderson to the staple more alternative shapes like Eggs, Logs and Fish by Beau Young, NPJ, Josh Keogh. Beside the coffee bar was a window into the shaping bay where surfboards were being made, right there, by hand and finished in the glassing room in the back.
We met Ollie and talked boards, we checked out a few of his shapes, asked the questions, checked out the glassing and the finishing on the boards and realised pretty quickly that we were aligned with Ollie and OPEN’s vision of what a good surfboard is to us. We had soon talked through a collaborative shape with some of the boards we had with us in the van and a few months later, the first Yonder x OPEN Mini Mals had arrived in the North East and looked beautiful.
A friendship had started with Ollie and a professional relationship too; he’s been making us a few amazing boards and we recently went to Cornwall to hang out and collect a new 6’8 that he’s been making me. I’m proud to be a part of the Cooper Surfboards family and love his work.
We caught up with Ollie to make this blog piece; to talk about hand shaped and UK made surfboards, his approach to design and motivation to keep going.
Whatever they tell you, making surfboards is a labour of love. It’s messy, the overheads are high, it involves a lot of stages of production, experience, patience and being a shaper is a lot of back and forth with customers, suppliers, couriers. it’s hard graft; an honest trade. A well made surfboard will be on this planet for years and we place a huge importance on our culture of surfing; shapers are a big part of that.
I hope you enjoy the read, give Ollie a follow!
Ollie at work at OPEN
Me, Ollie and Joe at one of Ollies (and OPEN’s) locals.
What got you started making surfboards?
Honestly I just love making things. That process of designing, working and seeing a finished product is one of the most rewarding feelings. I’ve had that interest across a few hobbies, but surfboards have been my main focus for 10 years now. I believe that’s because the idea of a perfect surfboard is always evolving, whether it’s someone’s personal preference, their progression, or just chasing a new feeling .When it’s that fluid it never gets stale.
How did you learn your craft initially and how long was/still is the learning process?
I was lucky enough to build my first board with Luke Young, he hosted a workshop course similar to those I teach today. He gave me a great baseline knowledge of the board building process. From there I’ve worked for many of the best names in surfing, doing my best to soak everything up like a sponge. That learning process is never ending though, they say it’s a thousand boards for your apprenticeship, that’s when you can ‘shape’. But actually becoming your own person, developing your own style and progressing what a surfboard is capable of, that’s never ending.
It’s a family affair. Surf checks with Ollie on a lovely clean Cornish day.
Ollie making the most of his twin-fin fish with a stylish little powerslide.
What does the notion of hand made mean to you?
That knowledge that a craftsperson has invested their time, with a product within hands reach, casting well-honed eyes over every facet to ensure the quality of the product. That stuff’s priceless. We’re in a time where we could quite easily shun hard work for outsourced labour and lower costs. You have to have real passion and be a bit rebellious to invest your energy into hand made goods.
Where do you see the relevance of hand shaped or hand crafted surfboards in todays surf culture?
I believe handshaped boards and local shapers have never been more relevant. We’ve had this switch in the last 10 years, the smaller brands are now leading the way in innovation while the big guys struggle to keep up. The fish movement, performance twins, mid lengths, and single fin logs, all boards that have massively disrupted the market, have all stemmed from small-scale quality shapers. But that’s just talking about shapes. The quality side is obvious, as these mega factories fight to push out more boards there’s an obvious drop in quality. You simpy cannot train a shaper, glasser, or sander in a few weeks and get good results. I know that’s filtering into the public conciousness now and I have more and more customers coming to me because they know they can trust my boards.
I place a high value on a shaper who surfs the kinds of boards they like to shape, and surfs them well too.
I’ve been addicted to this 6’1 Thruster Ollie made me.
What keeps you covered in dust? What do you love most about shaping?
Smiling faces and stoked customers most of all, but also that endless progression. Shaping’s a real combination of form and physics, it challenges you to let go of any pre-conceptions. That board that looks great might surf like shit and sometimes you have to accept it. Other times a board design you’ve written off goes great and sets you off on a whole new tangent.
Tell us a bit about OPEN, your home for the past few years.
OPEN was everything I dreamed the surf industry could be, the values there were so far ahead of their time. It was first off a surfboard factory, but also had an open door policy. If you wanted to learn to shape we had a course for you, if you want to continue that journey you could rent shaping bays by the hour. Experienced shapers wanting to travel to the UK could shape here to offer their boards to UK customers. All while promoting handshaping, exceptional quality standards, and collaboration within an industry that is so often closed off and fighting within itself.
What kind of impact did OPEN have on you, your craft and the culture that emanated from around the place?
I’ve often said I wouldn’t be in the industry if it wasn’t for Open. Mark kindly took me on with little experience, I had maybe 20 to 30 boards under my belt at that time. I followed the proper progression route of ding repair, sanding, glassing, then shaping. The true value though of Open came from our guest shapers and the wealth of knowledge they bought with them. That was something that kept our factory fresh and exciting, it allowed us to learn from legends in the industry, in our little UK factory I’ve worked alongside Simon Anderson, Beau Young, Neal Purchase Jnr. It’s the same reason I travelled and worked with Lost and Dalton Shapes in New Zealand, you can gain such a varied wealth of knowledge that goes beyond what we have in the UK.
This is a board that I have been so excited to receive, surf and show anyone who wants to see it!
A Cooper 5’6 fish in some Mexican Blue Waters
What challenges are independent shapers and factories facing currently?
Without getting too negative our industry curently has three main challenges.: We have a skilled labour shortage, lack of career progression, and high cost of available premises. But these are all linked and the overarching reason for them is unfortunately pricing. Us boardbuilders have never been the best business people, most of us suck at marketing, accounting and general customer service. I’m sure it’s similar in a lot of creative industries. But that has allowed brands with little care for the customer or knowledge of the product to become the big dogs, simply by throwing a lot of money into their marketing. I believe that is changing though. More people are recognising the value of their experienced local shaper; shaping boards for their local waves, and offering great quality. I think that will in the long run allow us to price ourselves properly, ensuring a future for the UK surfboard industry. We’ve lost too many great boardbuilders to low wages.
Why is it important that we have a grassroots surfboard industry in the UK?
Honestly it’s the grassroots that bring our whole community together. We’re a pretty antisocial bunch in the water and it’s only really those community hubs: the factories, surf shops, and coffee shops that bring our scene together and allow a space for us all to get to know one another. I’m always in awe of the events that guys like yourselves at Yonder put on, I know at the end of the day there’s no money that comes out of it, it’s just out of sheer willpower to bring everybody together. It’s truly rad and hopefully inspiring for anyone on the outside of the scene to get more involved in our weird little bubble of surfing.
What can we hope to expect from you in the coming months or years?
I’ve been slowly working on some more performance shapes for serious waves, and at the same time expanding my range of user-friendly boards that help people enjoy surfing more. There’s some great collaborations in the pipeline and maybe a side project in surf hardware coming soon. I’m just trying to provide a homegrown, quality (and affordable!) alternative for the little bits of gear we need in the water.
I’m just stoked every day on this journey, as long as I can keep making good boards for great people I’ll be happy.
Well, here it is, the 6’8 single fin egg that Ollie made me. I wasn't too specific on it, just some input into the width I like, he dialled in the rest. He hand shaped it and he got it absolutely perfect with the tint, laps, patch, gold resin pinline, double stringer blank, the shapes amazing, the curves sit just right and the volume feels like its distributed so well; I can’t wait to surf this board for years to come. The gold Fulmar was a detail that I wasn't expecting that is just beautiful. There isn’t a machine or a mass production factory in the world that could make something even a fraction of the beauty of a board like this; crafted by hand, with love a few hours down the road. The draw of the promise of performance might be there with the big names, I get that, but if you choose the right shaper (and we do believe that is important, folks like Ollie and Glenn Nary who Yonder puts it’s name next to on boards are experienced and we have tested, inspected and love their work) and you have the right conversations, handcrafted boards will out perform and out last anything on the market.
If you want to contact Ollie about a board - his website is here and we are more than happy to bridge that gap between surfer and shaper to ensure you are getting the board you are looking for.
Thanks to Ollie and Jennie for the hospitality when we came down and thanks and love to the OPEN family for creating something so beautiful and valuable; it is, and will continue to be sorely missed. x