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PENHALLOW1968PenhallowSurfboards, Gullick Bay

Gullick Bay, since 1968

Nine thousand boards, all shaped for the same forty miles of coast.

Jory Penhallow opened the shaping bay above Gullick harbour in 1968. His daughter Kit has shaped every board since he put the planer down, and she still starts each order with the same question: where do you surf?

Find the board for your breakCall the bay, (555) 014-1968
Foam dust flying as a blank is squared up with a rule on the shaping stand
The shaping stand. The foam dust never fully settles.

  • 1968

    the year Jory opened the bay

  • About 9,000

    boards, every one numbered

  • $780

    shortboards from

  • $1,150

    longboards from

  • 6 to 8 weeks

    from order to pickup

Jory built the bay in 1968. Kit has held the planer since 2020.

Jory Penhallow shaped his first board in his father’s boat shed in 1966, from a balsa blank laid across a door he had taken off its hinges. Two years later he rented the loft above the Gullick Bay chandlery, cut a window facing Gorran Point so he could check the surf between blanks, and never moved.

Kit grew up sweeping that floor. She glassed her first board at fourteen, shaped beside her father for 22 years and took over the stand when his shoulders gave out. The ledger by the door, every board numbered in pencil, passed 9,000 this spring.

“I don’t make a board for a surfer. I make it for a surfer at one spot, on one tide.”

Kit Penhallow
Kit Penhallow taking the planer along a blank in the bay
  1. 1968Jory rents the loft above the chandlery and cuts a window facing Gorran Point.
  2. 1979Board number 1,000, a single fin for a lifeguard at Wreckers Beach.
  3. 1994Kit, fourteen, glasses her first board. It still hangs over the door.
  4. 2020Jory puts the planer down. Kit takes the stand.
  5. 2026Board 9,000 goes out in April, a Pilchard Log for a Cove regular.

The board for your break

Six breaks within twenty minutes of the bay, and the board Kit shapes for each.

Pick the spot you surf most. You will see what the wave does, when it works, and the Penhallow model Kit starts from for it. The stock sizes suit a surfer around 170 lb, and she scales every board to the person ordering it.

The bayGullick Bay123456

Pilchard Cove

Sheltered cove, soft peelers over sand

The cove halves whatever swell comes in, so on a big day it is waist high and rolling. Lefts and rights off the middle bank, long enough for a proper walk to the nose.

Best swell
SW, 2 to 5 ft outside
Best wind
N to NE offshore
From the bay
Four minutes on foot from the bay
Best tide
Mid to high

Kit starts from the Pilchard Log, longboard

from $1,150

Length
9'4"
Width
23"
Thickness
3"
Volume
72.0 L

Rounded square tail, 10" single fin. Stock size for a surfer around 170 lb.

“Most of the logs in the rack were ordered by Cove regulars. If you ride one there already, I will usually go a touch longer.”

Kit Penhallow
Order a Pilchard Log for Pilchard Cove

Six models, each drawn for a wave you can see from the bay window or close to it.

Every price includes the hand shape, Morwen’s glass job, fin boxes or glassed fins, and your number pencilled on the stringer. Resin tints are $90, an extra layer of glass $45.

Shaped blanks standing in the rack before they go to the glassing room

  • Pilchard LogLongboard

    9'4" x 23" x 3", 72.0 L

    Flat rocker and soft 50/50 rails, so it keeps trimming through the fat part of the wave. Jory drew the first one in 1971 and the template has hardly moved. Made for Pilchard Cove.

    $1,150

  • FulmarShortboard

    5'11" x 19 1/2" x 2 7/16", 30.5 L

    A bit of extra width under the chest to get into steep sandbar takeoffs early, then a single to double concave that keeps it quick down the line. Made for Wreckers Beach.

    $780

  • Tolcarne TwinTwin fish

    5'6" x 20 3/4" x 2 1/2", 32.0 L

    Short, wide and loose. It makes a knee-high wedge feel like a real wave, and it still holds when the wall throws the odd bigger one. Made for The Groyne.

    $820

  • GuillemotMidlength

    7'2" x 21" x 2 3/4", 46.5 L

    Drawn for long walls: paddles like a log, turns off the rail like a much shorter board, and sits in the pocket from the cobbles to the car park. Made for Gorran Point.

    $960

  • ShearwaterStep-up

    6'4" x 19 1/4" x 2 1/2", 34.0 L

    More rocker in the nose for late, ledging drops, and a pulled-in tail that holds a high line when the lip is already coming over. Made for Carnhew Reef.

    $860

  • Brisk GunGun

    7'8" x 19 3/4" x 2 7/8", 45.0 L

    Length to paddle into a moving mountain and a narrow pin to stay on the face at speed. Glassed heavy, 6+6 oz, because a broken gun out there is a long swim. Made for Outer Brisk.

    $1,240

Board 9,214 will take about seven weeks. Here is where it spends them.

  1. 1

    Twenty minutes with Kit

    Day one

    Come up to the bay or call. Kit asks your height, weight, where you surf and what you ride now, then sketches the board on the back of an order card. A $150 deposit holds your slot.

  2. 2

    The shape

    Weeks 2 to 3

    Kit shapes your blank by hand on the same stand Jory built. If you want to run your hand down the rails before it goes to glass, she will text you a time.

  3. 3

    Glass and cure

    Weeks 3 to 6

    Morwen glasses it, 4+4 oz on shortboards and 6+6 on logs and guns, sands it and gives it a full week to cure. Your number is pencilled on the stringer here.

  4. 4

    Pickup and first wax

    Weeks 6 to 8

    Pay the balance, and Kit waxes it with you and tells you the tide to try it on. If it is not right after five sessions, bring it back and talk to her.

A hand smoothing the rail of a board, the last pass before glassing
Sanding a glassed board in the finishing room before the gloss coat

Three people, one room of foam dust, and a ledger nobody is allowed to take home.

  • Kit Penhallow

    Shaper

    Grew up sweeping this floor, shaped beside her father for 22 years and has shaped every board since 2020. Surfs Gorran Point before work when it is on.

  • Jory Penhallow

    Founder, retired

    Opened the bay in 1968 and shaped roughly 7,400 of the boards in the ledger. Comes in most Saturdays to drink tea and argue about rocker.

  • Morwen Tresize

    Glasser since 2004

    Lays the glass, sands and polishes every Penhallow. Mixes the resin tints by eye and has never had to redo a colour.

A surfer in a wetsuit carrying his board across the rocks after a session

Old Penhallows come home to be fixed, and so does everything else.

We repair any board, whoever shaped it. Bring in a Penhallow and Kit will find its number in the ledger and tell you who ordered it and when.

Repair prices
Ding up to thumb size$35
Rail ding, per inchfrom $60
Delaminationfrom $90
Fin box replaced$85
Snapped board rejoinedfrom $220

Drop off Tuesday to Saturday. Most dings are back in a week, fully cured.

Three surfers, three breaks, three boards off the same stand.

Sample reviews, written for this concept site.

  • “I told Kit I surf the Point on a low tide and weigh more than I did at thirty. The Guillemot she made me is the first board in ten years I have not wanted to swap.”

    Bryn T.

    Gorran Point, 7 years, sample review

  • “Brought in my dad’s 1974 single fin to get a crack fixed. Kit looked up the number in the ledger and read out his name and the price he paid. Forty two dollars.”

    Wenna M.

    Pilchard Cove, sample review

  • “Ordered a Fulmar in February, picked it up the second week of April, exactly when she said. It goes up the sandbar at Wreckers like it knows the way.”

    Sion P.

    Wreckers Beach, sample review

Up the stairs beside the chandlery, with a window on Gorran Point.

  • Loft 2, 4 Quay Row, Gullick Bay

    The blue door to the left of the chandlery, first floor.

  • Tuesday to Friday, 8am to 4pm

    Saturday 9am to 1pm. Closed Sunday and Monday, and any morning Gorran Point is over six foot and clean.

  • Harbour car park, two hours free

    Boards over 8 ft go down the outside stairs, so bring a friend.

  • Ask to see the ledger

    Every board since 1968, by number, in Jory’s handwriting and then Kit’s.

The weathered timber doors of the Penhallow shaping bay, old boards hung on the wall
A lone surfer on a clean wave below the cliffs, nobody else out

Tell Kit where you surf and what you ride now.

She replies within two working days with a spec and a price. A $150 deposit holds your slot, and the board is ready 6 to 8 weeks after that.

Rather talk it through? Call the bay on (555) 014-1968