Riparian carpentry deals with the construction of wooden boats following traditional techniques. The riparian carpenter is a millenary professional who traces, tills, cuts and assembles on the beach the different pieces that make up the structure of the wooden boats, whose result is not seen until the end. The raw material used is wood and the tools are the traditional ones of the carpentry trade.

The riparian carpentry techniques are in danger of disappearing since a more modern and complex technology is displacing this trade that is not very profitable. 

Currently, riparian carpentry has been left only for repairing, maintenance, and construction of small boats, as well as for the construction of replicas of historic ships and reproductions of old boats, such as the 'jábega malagueña', a Mediterranean rowing boat of Phoenician origin.