Tidewell started in 2009 in a leaking net loft above Porthaven harbour, with one set of shaping racks and a planer borrowed from a boatbuilder. We are still within a mile of the same water. The loft is now two bays, a glassing room and a small storefront, and the planer has been replaced twice.
How a board gets made
Every order starts with a conversation, not a size chart. We ask what you are riding now, what you wish it did, how often you get in the water and how honest you are being about the last answer. That produces a set of numbers — length, width, thickness, volume, rocker — that we mark on the blank in pencil before anything is cut.
From there it is a planer pass for the rough foil, a hand-sand for the rails, and a final skin with 120 grit. Shaping a board takes about three hours. Glassing takes two days, mostly waiting.
What we will not do
We do not fit a leash plug to a board that has not been water-tested. We do not sell a suit a size up because it is the only one in the rack. And we do not use pop-out blanks from overseas and call them hand-shaped, which is a more common practice than the industry admits.
Materials
Our polyurethane blanks come from a single supplier in the south west and our resin is a bio-content epoxy at 92% plant-derived carbon. Neoprene is limestone-based rather than petroleum-based, with recycled polyester backing on every suit we stock. None of this makes surfing a low-impact activity. It makes it a slightly less bad one.
Come and visit
The workshop is open Monday to Saturday. There is usually a kettle on and always a board on the racks. If you want to stand in the foam dust and watch a rail get sanded, you are welcome — just call ahead so somebody is actually shaping when you arrive.