Appletree Surboards Ireland
We are proud to welcome Appletree Surfboards to our lineup. Both Wieger and Jorrit Buurma have been shaping custom boards since 2006. What started as a passion project in their parents back garden has turned into one of the best custom board companies in the world. And their success not only lies in their passion, but also the way in which they produce their boards. I'll touch on that later.
I had the pleasure of talking with Wieger on a video call- co-founder and commercial director of Appletree surfboards. This fella oozes passion and stoke, and actually shaped boards himself in the beginning beside his brother Jorrit, so his technical knowledge and understanding of the processes is second to none.
I also got to meet his cool dog Sjef. When Wieger isn't travelling around Europe and America as commercial director, he can be found kitesurfing, wing foiling or surfing.
They now have a sustainable factory here in the EU in Portugal, run by solar energy. They also are gradually aligning with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Aiming to be more transparent about their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts.
In 2024 they introduced the digital board passport- this uses an NFC tag, so the board can be connected to the rightful owner if lost and it also provides material information about the board.
Appletree's success lies in the construction of their boards. They have a patented revolutionary process that is unique in both the kitesurfing and foiling world. Known as 50K closed-cell foam-
It’s Waterproof!
Every board we make starts with a foam core of our very own 50K closed cell foam. This foam is formalized exclusively for us, it is not used in any other board in the market.
The foam can withstand 50.000 kg per square meter, while staying very light, and most of all very flexible. Another plus of our 50K foam is that it is closed cell, meaning that the foam will not take in water. And the board will not blow out when it gets hot. Any small crack or ding does not need immediate repair. Eventually a repair is advised, but you can first finish your well deserved trip!
50K foam is not easy to shape, all commercially available shaping machines will have great trouble shaping it and hand shaping is not possible. At Appletree Surfboards we use our own shaping machines that we built and control ourselves. This way we can not only shape the foam, but we can also create channels and extreme contours, straight from the machine.
From the shaped foam we can go two ways: Hex-skin Carbon or Hex-skin Glass.
We have 2 x custom kite directional boards ordered and will be doing demo's and tours of the West Coast of Ireland- namely Clare, Galway, Sligo, Donegal, Kerry. We have gone for the custom malus domestica and custom Klokhouse noseless. You will already see some of these boards in Ireland still going strong, as they are built to last.
We also have access to their new Zapple trench board, which was designed specifically to be used with the Foil assist drive....more coming on this.
The prone foiling/para wing phase is now creating a new sport in itself, and people are buying quiver killer boards. People are choosing midi boards now that can do it all. And AppleTree surfboards are no different, they have an incredible line up of Apple Skipper Mid Length which is already proving very popular and the Appletree Skipper Downwind prone board.
For more information about Appletree surfboards visit them here- https://appletreesurfboards.com/kiteboard-technology/
