Mark Roberts

Mark Roberts is an Cor­nish surfer/shaper who is the cre­ator of Glass Tiger, a line of hand­crafted wooden surf­boards with a light­weight foam core. His boards are known for their dura­bil­ity and their min­i­mal envi­ron­men­tal impact. We caught up with Mark to learn more.

What was it like grow­ing up in the UK?
I grew up a long way from the coast, so I always had to travel to get to the surf. I mainly surfed South Wales with the odd trip down to Cornwall.

What was your first surf board?
My first board was a 6’4″ pop-out. It was a bit of a pig, but at the time I thought it was the best thing ever. It was com­plete with 80’s graphics.

Do you remem­ber the first time you stood up on a board?
Yep. It was on the pop-out pig.

Who inspired you when you were young?
Occy, Tom Cur­ren, Tom Carroll—they all had good, pow­er­ful surf­ing. I enjoyed watch­ing those guys the most.

How does the surf­ing cul­ture in Eng­land dif­fer from the rest of the world and how has it affected you?
It’s still pretty small over here com­pared to places like Oz and the west coast of Amer­ica. It will never get that big here, which in a way is a good thing. It can still get crowded, how­ever, and Corn­wall is still is the cen­tre for surf­ing in the UK.

I think the scene here has loads of good points, and there are peo­ple being really cre­ative with surf­ing and all the periph­eral stuff that goes with surf cul­ture. I love liv­ing in Corn­wall. Dare I say, it seems to be a very hap­pen­ing place right now.

How did you get involved in shap­ing?
Since I was a kid, I wanted to shape boards and, in a very round­about way, that’s what I’ve ended up doing. After school, I went off to study 3D design. I hated the course but had a ball being away from home for the first time, meet­ing some great peo­ple. As soon as I fin­ished that, I moved to Corn­wall and started work­ing in boat­yards. I used to make boards for myself, just copy­ing other designs and just teach­ing myself through trial and error.

The big turn­ing point came when I started to research how the sand­wich con­struc­tion boards were put together. This opened a whole can of worms for me. For a cou­ple of years, I spent time just tak­ing this con­cept and run­ning with it. Pick­ing holes in the con­cept was a tan­gent that has led me to where I am today.

What is your process for shap­ing a board?
The exact process is a bit of a secret, but it involves hand shap­ing EPS, vac­u­um­ing on skins and bend­ing rails. It is all done by hand.

What were the fac­tors that led you into the wood surf boards?
Basi­cally, turn­ing the way a nor­mal surf­board is made on its head and want­ing to make some­thing that looks beau­ti­ful, lasts and is more envi­ron­men­tally friendly.

What has been the reac­tion to the wood boards?
Lots of peo­ple say nice things about the boards, but what I really want is peo­ple out on them surf­ing. It takes a bit of com­mit­ment for a surfer to part with hard earned cash for a surf­board that has no exter­nal glass, and to believe me when I tell them it will out­last all of your other boards if you look after it.

It’s taken awhile for the penny to drop, but it’s the best feel­ing to know guys are really stoked with how they surf, how they last and how they like being a part of look­ing after the board.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out? And why?
I haven’t trav­elled a huge amount, but Ire­land and Morocco are a cou­ple of my favourite places I’ve been to—both con­sis­tent with great point set-ups.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Shap­ing wise, I love the way Tom Wegener has really opened the door for wooden surf­board shapers … and all his standing-on-his-head think­ing really out the box. Guys like Danny Hess and Josh Dowl­ing are pro­duc­ing some very beau­ti­ful wooden boards with sound con­struc­tion techniques.

What is in your cur­rent quiver? What is your favourite board?
At the moment, I’m rid­ing a 6’4″ sin­gle fin egg, which I’m lov­ing. My quiver changes all the time with what I can lay my hands on and what I can surf before some­one buys it or bor­rows it for an extended “demo”.

What’s your favourite meal?
My mum thinks its boiled ham and pars­ley source, so to keep her happy I’ll say that. (Laughs)

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
Man, these are no small questions!

I love phi­los­o­phy but have no time for it; there’s a con­tra­dic­tion I think.
Well, I would say a Beastie Boy lyric always pops into my head at times like these: “Be true to your­self and you will never fail.”

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
Por­tico Quartet.

What’s next for Mark Roberts?
Keep doing what I’m doing.

Find out more about Mark Roberts and Glass Tiger surf­boards here. Surf­ing Pho­to­graph by Ian But­ler.