Max receives a helping hand for his surf board shaping business with a grant from SWEF

Since making his first board in 2020, surf coach Max had a dream to become a full-time surfboard shaper and fill a gap in the UK market. 

‘With surfing growing in popularity in the UK, I would struggle to find worthy second-hand boards to suggest to friends and people on lessons when they asked. 

The intermediate and improver boards that come from overseas are a general one size fits all design and don’t take into consideration fickle UK surf conditions and their equally fickle surfers 

Using my surf coaching experience, I went on to design and make a handful of rounder and wider outlined surfboards for my friends, taking into account their height/weight, surfing ability and even how often/where they surf.” 

A grant from SWEF enabled Max to increase his supply of demo boards for potential customers to try, and to move his fledging business forwards. 

Hand Laid Eggs are user friendly surfboards, designed and shaped by a surf coach, handmade in Cornwall. 

About the fund 

The aim of SWEF is to change things for young people who are perfectly capable of taking their business to the next stage but don’t have access to the finance to do so. 

Young people can struggle to access a bank loan if they have no assets to guarantee the loan; they may not have savings; or friends and family who can support them financially; or a network of contacts who are angel investors. 

There are few options for them to finance an investment in their business and SWEF’s aim is to fill that gap. 

SWEF is a fundA sum of money made available for grant making, often with specific criteria/conditions. that invests in the business initiatives of young people. SWEF looks at what they are already doing for themselves and backs them with grant funding. In most cases, the businesses that SWEF backs are already up and running in some form. 

SWEF provides business grants up to the value of £2,000.  

For more information about Hand Laid Eggs visit handlaideggs.co.uk 

If you are a young entrepreneur looking for funding view our available grants to see if SWEF is currently open. 

If you are looking to support the Cornwall Community Foundation with a donation, go to our online donation page.