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One of our readers, Will Worthington, is currently building his own race SUP made of wood and we think that is very cool!
It came up on a comment on Facebook a while ago that Will was building his own cedar wood SUP. We reached to Will to get some further insights and found out there’s much more to his story than meets the eye.
“I’m kinda half way through the build and not finished yet, a bit to go I guess. Here are some photos of the current stage and the lead up to where I am now.
“Before I tell you why I’m doing it, here is some background info about me. I’m currently living and working on a country Estate where I’m the Forestry Foreman on the Estate. I’m in charge of overseeing all forestry operations on the Estates 650ha of woodland, which includes harvesting timber sustainably, which of course means that when we fell timber part of the felling license conditions is that we replant what we have harvested. We are in the planting season this time of year and just today we have been planting a 4ha site with about 8,000 trees.
So SUP, I got into SUP 8 or 9 years ago, found out I’m not too bad at it and decided to take on a few distance Challenges events to challenge myself and maybe learn more about SUP and gain more experience. Events such as SUP Bike Run, Worcester Ring, The 4 day charity paddle on the River Wye, Trent 100 and Great Glenn two day Challenge. I’m currently paddling a 14ft Naish Glide iSUP which I love but after completing these events I’m kinda looking to push my paddling on to harder events. I’d love to be in a position to do the Glenn in one day or even think about signing up for the 11 Cities Tour. To do such events I feel I should up my game and maybe invest in a race board but then I had an idea that why don’t I build a race SUP from wood rather then buy one. The added bonus was I could use wood I had felled myself from one of our Woodlands on the Estate. So there the idea was born, build a Race SUP board from wood I had harvested and then (as long as it floats!) complete a challenge event on it. So there we go, just need to finish building it, see if it floats and paddles in a straight line.”
Will, we are super impressed by your drive, passion and involvement within SUP. We can’t wait too see the finished product and share it with our readers, who I’m sure, you will all be interested in.
On a final note, Will wanted to raise awareness for sustainable Forestry here in the UK. That something is being done to maintain the land and our livelihoods and how we can think more about using recycled or reusable materials when we build.
Stay tuned for more information about Will’s completed cedar wood SUP coming out very soon!
Any questions, please leave below and we would love to hear your stories of creating your own SUPs too!