Born from a passion for functional design, Ondanova creates custom wooden surfboards and leads immersive workshops for those who value simplicity, nature, and the calm that comes from making with your hands. It’s not just about the board, it’s about the process.
Our story
Ondanova was created by Antoine. After some years of traveling and working on ships, he left Belgium and his job as a seaman in 2016 and settled down in Portugal.
Ondanova Surfboards was born from the desire to live on something that feels more consistent. The passion for crafting functional art by hand, with all the emotions that goes along with the process.
Building our own tools and games gives a feeling of independence, freedom and joy. A surfboard is one of those creations bringing science and art together, hydrodynamic and aesthetic and it is empirical, using them intensifies the whole process.
Our main goal has been to create surfboards while removing or minimizing the use of foam, resin, and fiberglass, which are the primary ingredients of “modern” surfboards.
As main material, wood brings new challenges. The techniques and systems are refined board after board, and today wooden surfboards are comparable to their foam sisters.
As surfers, using wood also narrows the paradoxal gap between our love for the ocean and letting more plastic afloat.
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We use Paulownia wood (also known as Kiri in Japan).
Since 2016, we’ve also been sharing this approach through immersive workshops →
These three-day experiences invite people to slow down, learn, and shape their own board from start to finish. We share everything we’ve learned, every technique, every detail, so each person leaves not only with a board, but with the knowledge and confidence to keep exploring on their own. It’s not just about the board, it’s about the process.
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FRANCE 2021
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ERICEIRA 2023
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BELGIUM 2024