Ordering Tramadol From Canada My name is Malte, I’m 25 years old and I live in Laax, Switzerland. I started snowboarding when I was about 21 years old. Ever since, boardsports, especially snowboarding and surfing, have been big passions and a part of my lifestyle. For many years Laax has been the place to be for freestyle sports of any kind. Now another creative is bringing a new lifestyle to the area — Ben Chick.

When I first met Ben, he was dreaming about creating his own workshop for self-made, handcrafted surfboards. It’s been two-and-a-half years since then and he realized his dream and is already working on a large cache of other fresh ideas. I had the chance to join in on one of his workshops and got hooked immediately. I’m also now owner of my first self-made wooden Enlain surfboard.

https://www.mominleggings.com/bs8rujdqr  

Meet Ben

You grew up in Wales. How did you end up in Laax, and how long have you been living here?
So, I’ve been in Switzerland for about eight years now, almost six of those in Laax. Originally I came to Switzerland to try ski acrobatics. That’s what brought me to Switzerland, my trampolining background.

Ski Acrobatics?!
I had an invitation to try the sport after I quit competitive trampolining. I worked at “Jump In” next to the trainers, and I was supposed to be training to be an active ski acrobat.

But that’s where I actually discovered freestyle, snowboarding, skiing, and whatever. I gained a little more freedom than I could get on the trampoline — those sports aren’t so bound to the straight lines.

That’s actually what brought me to Switzerland in the first place.

Anyway, pretty soon I realized that I wasn’t going to continue in that role at ski acrobatics and I’d been dying to try snowboarding for years, but never really made it to the mountains. And then I saw my chance. Once the team disappeared to go to the rest of their competition season, I dragged out the snowboard straight away and probably never stood on a ski again after that. *laugh*

So that’s how it began.

https://musiciselementary.com/2024/03/07/ewyiqs5u3 Next to snowboarding, surfing is one of your biggest passions. When did you start surfing?
I grew up on the coast in Wales in a town called Porthcawl. We were really lucky growing up in that place. Just opposite the street was the beach, so we grew up in the water. And participating in all water sports, not just surfing. Especially when I was very young, I was on a surf kayak or windsurfing.

The beach where I grew up was actually not a surfing beach at all. But the town had beaches with different aspects, so on the other side of the town were the surfing beaches.

And then we moved away from the beach, when I was about 11 or 12 years old. I was really angry and quite disappointed. Although we still had a nice life where we lived in the countryside, in the hills in Wales. It wasn’t until a bit later, when I was 16 or 17 years old, that I got back in the water and started to surf again. I would say that was the point when I really got into surfing. Even though I grew up by the sea, I wasn’t born on a surfboard.

Most people, when they get in the water for the first time to surf, are pretty much hooked automatically, I would say. If you get any small success when you’re trying, then it’s kind of clear for you, you wanna go back and you wanna do it again. Surfing is a challenge. You can relate it to a lot of things you do in day-to-day life and I think that’s what’s kept me into it. It is easy to draw comparisons between the fight to get the wave and the fight to deal with some of the problems of daily life, especially when you’re younger. You learn to crack on in the world.

So since then I’ve been in the water as much as possible.

You’re definitely taking a big step in bringing the surfing lifestyle to Laax, here to the mountains, but how did it all start with Enlain? What does “Enlain” mean anyway?
So Enlain is Romansch and means “made of wood“. But I have to say the name was not from me. I have no roots here in Laax. The name comes from my partner, Urs Welti. To whom I’m eternally grateful, because without his energy and input, we might not be having this discussion. So big thanks, Urs!

His background and his family is closely related to the Romansch people and it was his idea, when I met him a few years ago, to really connect to the region. He was teaching his children at the Freestyle Academy here in Laax.

And that’s where the name came from.

In terms of bringing it to Laax — something I always carried with me when we moved from the sea years ago was that I always wanted to go back. It seems like the more I want to be at the sea, the further away I move from it in some ways.
And I guess it is some sort of substitute in that respect to keep thinking, dreaming about it. Some way of holding on to the connection.

And in Switzerland it’s interesting because it’s a growing sport.

People are getting really excited about it, especially during the last few years. Obviously it has a relationship to board sports in general — either it’s on land, skating, or on the mountains, as we say, with the frozen waves. Taking out the snowboard and riding powder, that feeling is something really similar. Our goal at the moment is to bringing ourselves closer to the sea, even though we’re a good 1000 miles away from the Atlantic.

https://worthcompare.com/p3xr5re When did you start to build surfboards and how did you get there?
In the beginning, the first experience you have with building or making anything from your surfboard is repairing it.

The bigger the damage, the greater the repair and each time you can say “I’m building another part of my board.”

Where I grew up there was a surfboard shaper, so I was able to get some experience working with the material, and what you look for when you’re shaping the boards.
And I got to experience the atmosphere of being in a workshop, and see the pride people had after finishing a product.

I worked in some different surf shops through the years and had the opportunity to use a lot of different boards. Even though I’m not the best surfer in the world, it gives you a good overview of what different boards can do and the different design elements and functional features of a board.

I always had the feeling that I wanted to build a wooden board one day after seeing Grain Surfboards and Otter Surfboards. Not necessarily for the performance, but just because this was something I thought I would love to do once.

Then, years later I took the opportunity to do a workshop with my dad.

I actually did the first wooden board with a guy called Paul Rice from Arbo Surfboards. He is a German guy who studied boat building in Wales and was living and working in Bristol at the harbor. He was offering courses for board building, and that’s where I first got the training for working with wood and building a surfboard. I knew then, this is not going to be the last board I build.

https://www.jamesramsden.com/2024/03/07/thi8jqt Why did you choose to make surfboards out of wood? Where do you see the difference between wood and foam?
Wood is a very friendly material, it’s quite a natural feeling to work with it.
As for the performance aspects, I would never try to sell someone the idea that they’re going to build a board out of wood will in some way have a more competitive performance than something from foam. That’s been the progression over years, to lighten the materials and obviously with a view to manufacturing things quicker. I wouldn’t say that there is an advantage in performance to have a board from wood in comparison to one of the new materials like epoxy. You can’t say that.

Wood, for me, is just friendlier, it has a warmer aesthetic — it’s a much friendlier medium to work with.

How long does it take to build a surfboard in one of your workshops?
We offer courses for four days over two weekends, usually. Generally we are finished in four days. The days go up to 8 or 10 hours, but that’s without glassing the boards. I would say the whole board takes a good 60 hours at least to build and glass. The bigger the board, the greater the journey, so it can go even longer. The thing we’re trying to show is that it’s possible for anyone, for them to realize that it’s possible.
Maybe the first board is not going to be perfect. I mean, I know that when I build my 100th board it’s not going to be perfect. There’s always something to improve.

Tramadol Cheap What’s your favourite shape?
I would say the longboard is really special to me. If you can produce a big piece of work and really have an even flow over the whole form, from concept to the design and the build and have all those things work together, it’s amazing.

A longboard would be a crowning jewel in the end. Shortboards are great, but the classic in the end is really the longboard for me. It’s the Rolls Royce of surfboards.

http://countocram.com/2024/03/07/c15u04us1 What’s the future for Enlain here in Laax?
We are a young company. We founded Enlain officially one and a half years ago. The surf scene in Switzerland, although there is no sea around, is a growing one. People here love the outdoors, they love to be active. They’re always excited to try new things. A lot of people in Switzerland are also hand workers or at least capable of hand work, and I think that’s a good sign for us as a craft company. So the future looks great. There are going to be some exciting developments.

We’re slowly making a connection to the surf scene here in Switzerland and are steadily gaining some recognition. We just managed to get ourselves a great new workshop, and we have the opportunity and space now to expand our vision within freestyle board sports. We are interested in trying to make snowboards and skis. We’ve been doing some research over the last few months, preparing ourselves to make the leap to this as well. We are staying with wood, because we want to keep it in the realm of wooden, handmade products.

In addition to this, building skateboards is also another fun project in the not-so-distant future of Enlain.
We want to provide the chance for young people to come and put their own projects forward. Having the creative freedom and workspace to produce their own concepts, designs, logos and so on.

Thanks for reading,
Malte

Pictures: Malte Vogt
Text: Malte Vogt
Location: Laax, Switzerland
Thanks to: Ben Chick for his introduction to surf shaping, to Urs Welti, and to Malte for his great first piece at Reverse
Links: Enlain, Instagram of Malte