Turning straight objects into curvaceous pieces of timber that take a thrashing

I caught up with a young guy named Jack Candlish. We met up on an overcast Sunday afternoon at his workshop in Berhampore, Wellington. I’d got in contact with Jack a little bit earlier to find out if he was keen to sit down for a conversation which we could turn into a podcast episode. Turns out he was very keen.

The reason I wanted to catch up with Jack was to hear more of his story, and the story of his company, Organic Dynamic. What drew me to Jack was the concept, creating environmentally friendly surfboards out of recycled polystyrene, Paulownia timber and sustainable resin. It’s a different way of making boards to the usual method, one which has far less environmental impact. It’s been a “learn as you go” process for Jack as there aren’t many people out there making boards like this. The making of the boards is only part of the interesting stuff about Organic Dynamic. Jack is also developing the machine he uses to form the boards so that other shapers and makers from all over can work the way he does, without shipping surfboards all around the world. If you’re keen on the process he goes through then check out the podcast conversation we had.

The purpose of this piece isn’t to teach you how to make a board, go and see Jack and he can sort you out. It’s to have a think about Jack’s perspectives and processes. I’ve picked three out to have a think about, there are a lot more in episode for you.

“Learning the lesson then and there is lot better than learning it further down the track”

Jack has discovered that there is no short path to success, something that I’ve become more and more aware of. In the early days when he had a “failure” it would make him pretty pissed off, which I can definitely relate to. One of the most spectacular is when he had a top surfer trialling his board to get some pictures for marketing material. The surfer was making a heavy turn when his foot went through the board, this is back when Jack was still making his boards hollow. Obviously a failure from a structural point of view as well as not getting any pictures. He implemented the recycled polystyrene as the core to increase the solidity, but also keep the board lightweight. It was easy to sit and stew in that failure and the feeling of being pissed off, however it wasn’t overly productive. Every “failure” he went through was a step along the way to figuring out what would work. Jack went through making at least 12 surfboards in 18 months before coming to the current iterations. With each of these “failures” Jack took at least one learning away from it that he could apply to the next try. As he worked through this, Jack figured out that these were opportunities to learn, they still hurt in the moment, but he developed the understanding that they didn’t mean that this wasn’t something that wasn’t going to work in the long run, and it wasn’t something that made hi