Daily Bread Surfboards – Have Faith

I  have always said 'each to their own' in many ways, everyone should be able to believe and think what they want. It’s called freedom of thought or freedom of belief. For Chris Clark it is in God and waves that he chooses to put his faith. Chris now makes the most amazing looking wooden surfboards I have ever seen and he works from a shed in a field in the UK, nearly 1000 feet above sea level.

For thirty years, surfer Chris, managed a micro-brewery and some pubs until one day he found himself thinking more about surf board construction than what the next brew was going to taste like. It was time for a change and he had the faith that the gamble he was making was going to work.

The boards Chris makes now look stunning, but it must have been a rocky road to get there especially as wood seems like one of the more difficult materials to work with. Chris has agreed to talk to us and tell us more about Daily Bread Surfboards and his journey so far.

SB: Hey Chris, thanks for sparing us the time. When did you first have the realization that you wanted to shape wooden boards?

Chris: About 5 or 6 years ago I became aware of the Paulownia boards that Tom Wegener was shaping from his home in Noosa Heads From Alaias to Olos he just seemed to be having fun experimenting with all sorts of shapes and styles, he was also testing them in a perfect environment which made it look idyllic.

I’m no great surfer but I am a surf lover. Perfection for me is heading straight down the line watching this wall extend in front of me. Best of all is surfing one of my own boards and feeling how it responds as I move. If I break it down it’s just nuts, somehow this pile of atoms (me) has collected and shaped another pile of atoms (one of my boards) and together they have arranged themselves so that they have harnessed the energy from a wave that has travelled maybe thousands of miles and is only going to exist for another few seconds!

And all so that happens so that one of the piles of atoms can experience this thing called fun! Surfing for me has to be a spiritual experience, it takes more faith for me to believe that this is all some random chemical accident than to believe that there is more going on than I can see with my eyes.

SB: Was it a tough decision to make with regards to changes in the household and how much support did you get straight away?

Chris: I had been running a micro-brewery and pub business, with my brother Paul, near Bath in England for about 25 years and, soon after I got the bug for wooden boards, someone made us an offer we both couldn’t refuse and we walked away with enough breathing space to try something new.

I used to spend literally hundreds of hours gazing at spreadsheets ensuring that our staff would get their wages and we would be able to pay everyone. That’s pretty wearing. So the name Daily Bread is about living in the moment and being thankful that I have got enough for today and not worrying too much about the future. Mindfulness is a bit of a buzz word at the moment, that ability just to be aware of the moment and experience it, well Daily Bread means the same thing to me, I surf one wave at a time, squeezing every drop of fun I can out of it, so why not try and make each day like that too?

My wife Nicky and kids have encouraged me throughout and in fact Nicky has changed her career path at the same time too; for the last four years she has been training to be a therapeutic counsellor. So this is a huge change for all of us.

SB: Your boards look amazing, was it quite a quick learning curve, did you have any help?

Chris: Thanks, it’s always great to hear that people like what I make. I always see the tiny imperfections because I spend so much time up close to tthem. I especially like it when people can’t work out how I’ve done something; that gives me a real buzz. I studied mechanical engineering at Plymouth Poly’ 30 years ago and so I have always been comfortable with finding ways to make things work. My mind is happy looking at problems and coming up with solutions, I can almost play videos in my head of the way hypothetical objects will work in reality.

I pretty much worked out my own way of doing things although I learned a lot from looking at boards and admiring the work of many others.

The first wooden board I made was a 9’ 6” single fin called Genesis, it took me months to make on and off. It was chambered rather than built with the hollow triangulated frame that they are now. I spent days routing out the sections, I worked out that I had walked over 2 miles with the router! The worst part was that so much of my expensive Paulownia had been turned into sawdust. However it surfed OK and I learned a lot. I also sold it for £250 which was a start.

Since then each board has benefitted from the experience gained on the last. I’ve made twin fin fish, 5 fin longboards, a 13 foot copy of a 1930’s Tom Blake paddle board, alaias, a paipo, handplanes all sorts. Inevitably it’s a continuing learning process, however after I had made about 20 boards I thought that I was producing some pretty decent work. All in all it’s taken about 4 years to get me to where I am now.

I pretty much worked out my own way of doing things although I learned a lot from looking at boards and admiring the work of many others.

The first wooden board I made was a 9’ 6” single fin called Genesis, it took me months to make on and off. It was chambered rather than built with the hollow triangulated frame that they are now. I spent days routing out the sections, I worked out that I had walked over 2 miles with the router! The worst part was that so much of my expensive Paulownia had been turned into sawdust. However it surfed OK and I learned a lot. I also sold it for £250 which was a start.

Since then each board has benefitted from the experience gained on the last. I’ve made twin fin fish, 5 fin longboards, a 13 foot copy of a 1930’s Tom Blake paddle board, alaias, a paipo, handplanes all sorts. Inevitably it’s a continuing learning process, however after I had made about 20 boards I thought that I was producing some pretty decent work. All in all it’s taken about 4 years to get me to where I am now.

SB: Do you look up to anyone in the surfboard shaping world, draw inspiration from anyone in particular?

Chris: I look up to almost everyone in the industry! I’m in awe of the shapes and finish that the guys at Diplock Phoenix currently get on their boards. Tom Wegener in Noosa Heads and James Otter in Cornwall were my original inspiration for wooden boards and Danny Hess in the States. Bob Simmons, Dick Brewer obviously, Cheyne Horan, George Greenough where do you stop? Maybe Tom Blake and his design in “Practical Mechanics” in the 1930’s has taught me and encouraged me more than most.

SB: How long is the process for you to make a wooden board for someone and what is the best way to order one?

Chris: If I work flat out it takes a couple of weeks from start to finish and probably about 40 hours’ work in that time.

I start with the rough Paulownia planks, I imported from Australia. Cutting out the wood for the rails, the frames and the decks takes about 5 hours depending on the board size.

Setting up the jig and then steaming and bending the rails takes a couple of hours.

Adding the frames to the rails takes anything up to a day depending on the board length and the number of fins the board will have. I then hand plane the finished frame to get the curves as I want them.

Making up the two decks, and gluing them to the frame takes another ½ day I guess. Then I add the nose and tail blocks.

Shaping and sanding the board takes ½ a day.

I burn all my designs on to the deck with a Pyrography tool, a sort of soldering iron really. Depending on the design this can take a while. I’m going through a phase of liking Hawaiian tattoo designs at the moment. But for a custom board obviously it’s whatever you want.

Then it’s glassing, adding fins/boxes and leash plugs, sanding and polishing just like everyone else.

SB: How much would one of your boards cost me if I had all the extras?

Chris:For an 8-9’ board with a three fin set up, handmade fins and your design burned on the price would be around £1000. I’ve done them for less but that is a sort of ball park figure.

SB: Can you describe in words how it makes you feel when you catch a wave or get barreled?

Chris: I’m much better at making boards than riding them! However I love to surf. I love watching waves come towards me in the lineup and the anticipation as I turn and paddle for the one I’ve selected. That feeling of being picked up by this elemental force that only has a few seconds left before its energy dissipates in the sand, the joy of seeing a wave wall up in front of me as I charge as fast as I can down the line. The whole process is just life enhancing. A good surf lifts my mood for days.

SB: Can you remember your first surfboard? Have you still got it?

Chris: I made my first foam board about 30 years ago, it floated and the paint job was fun but it wasn’t a great shape. I think I sold it for £30 to a couple who wanted to nail something to the back of their camper van!

The first board I really loved was passed on to me by my brother. It was a 7’ single fin pintail by Tris Surfboards from the 70’s I traded it a few years ago for a 6’10” Nineplus Magic Carpet and then to my amazement I saw it hanging from the ceiling of a church called the TubeStation in Polzeath when I went to a Christian Surfers conference there. For me that felt like an affirmation that God was somewhere in all of this. So don’t still own it but I know it’s gone to a good home and I can visit whenever I like!

Probably quite rightly, you haven’t asked what I think the future holds for Daily Bread Surfboards and the answer of course is I have no idea and that’s sort of the way I like it. As long as there is bread on the table and I have got a board to make for someone then that’s enough for me. Come back and ask me in a couple of years.

SB: Chris has told a tale of belief and thats all you need, beleive in something enough and it will come true. Also, in his case you have to have some blinding skill and a super supportive family but hey, the moral is still the same. His boards look absolutely amazing and I am sure we will not have to dig around and see what daily bread is up to in a couple of years time, we will all know.