Made
How to Make a Surfboard
At Grain in coastal Maine, the art of making traditional wooden surf craft never went out of style.
Nestled between the woods and lobster boat-dotted coves in York, Maine, just nine miles from the New Hampshire border, sits an unusual woodshop. In it, Mike LaVecchia and his team of 10 are hard at work turning long planks of warm-hued wood into high-end surfboards. That’s right: in Maine.
On the surface, the pairing may seem odd—a surfboard manufacturer located in one of the union’s coldest states—but the shop is near enough sandy beaches with sufficiently consistent rolling waves that employees sneak surfing sessions between their duties in the shop.