The original surfboards ridden were made of wood and the most magnificent of these boards were the legendary OLOs which were only ridden by the Hawaiian royal family.

For the last 20 years underground artisan craftsman Roy Stewart, based in New Zealand, has been recreating boards of this style from Paulownia wood and combining traditional board shapes with more modern design concepts taken from the fields of aerodynamics, fluid mechanics and hull design.

These surfboards have historically divided the surfing community; however not many surfers have actually ever ridden one; those that have all agreed that these are indeed special boards that offer a completely unique way of surfing waves.

A loose collective of surfers and wooden surfboard enthusiasts are attempting to bring the first OLO (FP12) surfboard to the UK to ride our British waves. Following the Hawaiian tradition of sharing everything and spreading "aloha," we plan to pass this wooden surfboard from guardian surfer to guardian surfer in key surfing areas around the UK - allowing it be ridden in a variety of waves by a wide group of surfers from beginners and young surfers through to some of the top UK professional watermen.

This project is being funded through donations by surfers that will ride the board; we have a target of £1200 to cover the materials and import of the board. So far we have collected over £600 towards this total in just the first week of the project. Please check the funding page for more details.