FACTORY
MEET OUR HEAD SHAPER:
MARKIE LASCELLES
Markie is a surfer and surfboard shaper, born and bred in St. Agnes, Cornwall, UK
He is the third son of the late Peter “Chops” Lascelles who was a world renown Surfer, Shaper and Surfing Pioneer
from Queensland, Australia and younger brother of
Cord founder David "Humphrey" Lascelles, who started Cord in 1965.
Markie has been surfing since he was 6 years old and has travelled all over the world in search of waves including multiple Mentawai and Maldives boat trips, long stints in Bali, 5 seasons lifeguarding in Western Australia, trips to the USA, Costa Rica and constantly chasing swells all over the UK , Ireland, Europe and Morrocco. Like any surfer he is stoked on all waves but really feels at home in big barrels!
Markie fell in love with the art of shaping from a super young age. He would watch his Dad shaping from as early as 5 years old and as soon as he was old enough he started to try and shape. He shaped his first real board when he was 15 and by 18 was able to shape his own boards.
When Peter "Chops" Lascelles sadly passed away in 2013 Markie inherited Cord and all its heritage with it and started the next part of this story.
He has been building the company ever since with his eldest brother Sean and is proud to have some of the best surfers in Europe riding his boards today.
MARKIE LASCELLES KEG HUNTING IN THE NORTH
DESIGNS
On top of the treasure trove of board templates that Cord holds from over 50 years of surfboard making, Markie has worked tirelessly on his own set of designs since becoming head shaper. These designs have been tweaked and refined and endlessly tested in the surf by himself and a small army of local and international surfers. This feedback is vitally important to our design process.
A huge part of our ethos at Cord is making sure our shapes really work in the water before making them available to our customers.
MENTORS
As well as being lucky enough to be taught by his Dad “Chops”, a shaping master, Markie has also had the privilege of working with an impressive list of international shaping royalty. He includes the following in his list of mentors and shaper buddies:
Daryl "Rooster" Dell (AUS and original Cord Factory Shaper)
Maurice Cole ( MC Surfboards AUS)
Nigel Semmens (UK)
Gary Mcnabb (Nectar Surfboards USA)
Ronnie "Magic Hands" Woodward (AUS)
Beau Young (AUS)
Neil Purchase JR (AUS)
Ben Skinner (UK)
Gary McNeil
CONSTRUCTION
In 2019 Markie became the sole agent for Arctic Foam from California, USA. He is the main distributor in the U.K supplying the UK and Ireland.
Here at Cord we exclusively use Arctic Foam. It is the lightest and most durable foam we have used and we believe you can feel the difference in the way the board surfs.
Artic Foam supplies a lot of the top board companies in the world including Pyzel and Lost. They are the only choice for many of the top surfers in the world including John John Florence and Jordy Smith.
We are also working closely with Arctic on developing a sustainable option for surfboard foam which is something that we are very excited about implementing in the not too distant future.
MARKIE LASCELLES HAVING JUST UNLOADED A FRESH CONTAINER OF ARCTIC FOAM FROM CALIFORNIA
CHOPS LASCELLES AT THE CORD FACTORY AROUND 2005
At the start of 2023 we moved back into the original factory that Markie's Dad, Chops Lascelles started back in the early nineties at Wheal Kitty Workshops in St. Agnes, Cornwall.
It was here that Chops bought the first guest shapers to the UK including Nat Young, Matt Biolos (Lost), Gary Mcnabb (Nectar) and a whole host of others, to collaborate with on models for Cord and also make their own respective brands here in the UK.
It feels right to be back at the factory where it started in the UK and continue the story that has spanned almost sixty years.
Here at Cord we have an expert team who have years of surfboard making experience under their belt here, who all take pride in constructing the best boards we can send out.
To put it bluntly, we just love making sick surfboards!
To find the factory and come and see our show room click HERE
