The women and men behind the TAHE product range

Meet THE TEAM: Florent Gautier

Discover what goes on behind-the-scenes in the manufacturing of all your favourite boards! At TAHE, the very heart of our R&D work is people. Throughout the entire process of creating and manufacturing products, our team is busy testing, improving, and finally, delivering the original concept. Our mission? To bring you high-quality products that are built to last, perform well, and are adapted to your needs.

At our production site in Vannes (Brittany, France), Florent Gautier is a key member of our team. After several years of experience working as an engineer, he’s been at TAHE for the past two years working as head of research and development (R&D) and as an industrial project manager. Working alongside the designers and the production teams, his constant quest to optimise and improve means he is also focused on developing eco-concepts and testing new materials in order to reduce our environmental impact. Here’s a glimpse inside the mind of our master engineer!

How Jimmy created/designed the SUP-YAK:

Working as an engineer at TAHE

Florent Gautier: « As a water sports person myself (mostly surf but also kayak and SUP,) it’s a great pleasure to be working for TAHE in Vannes. The company is a big player but with a close, family feel and is based very close to the sea. My job consists of developing and improving our current product range, developing forthcoming products, and looking for new materials. You could say it’s about linking our wishes and desires with our accumulated production knowledge and experience. It combines the use of high-performance industrial machines and techniques with high-precision functions that are still very manual and skills-based. »

A real teamwork

F.G.: « I work very closely with our TAHE brand manager and the internal study and design teams, especially with Valentin. He works on everything to do with product definition and creating production moulds. I also work with our other internal services (commercial, maintenance, and production). We are a worldwide brand: this shows that our experience and knowledge are internationally recognised. It’s a measure of quality that is constantly pushing us to go even further, to be our own worst critics, to constantly research new ideas, and continual improve. We have a very wide range of water sports products each with its individual constraints and requirements. As a materials engineer, I like being able to work on specific concrete needs. I try to respond to those immediate needs and I can see the results straight away. »

Josh Bibby, skier, father and firefighterJosh Bibby, skier, father and firefighter

Valentin Picard, R&D Industrial Designer

Josh Bibby, skier, father and firefighterJosh Bibby, skier, father and firefighter

Production site, Vannes (Brittany, France)

The most exciting thing is to see the result, those little sand grains which improve the everyday life and the final product

F.G.: « The challenge is to succeed in increasing production while retaining high quality standards. We’re working on numerous projects—on higher performance products that are also more environmentally respectful. In the coming years, we will continue to reduce our environmental impact. That’s a big part of our R&D: testing new materials that can make us as virtuous as possible. Every environmental gain is also a gain for our company, especially regarding the recycling of materials—that’s the case with our production off cuts. Our manufacturing processes are clean and efficient. The ultimate goal would be to be able to recycle all our boards at the end of their lives, which should be at least ten or twenty years. What’s always in our minds is to produce a product accessible to the widest possible range of users, a product as long-lasting as possible, and 100% Made in France, in collaboration with all our local and regional partners. How about recycled fishing net fins? Stay connected, it's coming soon!


Explore our production site in France