“Andy [Powers] consistently surprises me, whether it’s his guitar playing, his guitar building or his general knowledge about the ocean, physics or pretty much anything.”
— Jon Foreman-Switchfoot
My friends Chuck and Nancy Powers were expecting their second child. When I asked his name, Nancy said, “Andy.” I only mention that so I can brag that I knew Andy’s name even before he did. To this day, there are very few things I know that he does not.
Currently Andy is internationally known as the brilliant president/CEO of Taylor Guitars. But there was a time he was just a kid with a love of surfing and turning tree branches into art. Circa 1990, Andy appeared in a frayed lifeguard hat, walking the sand in Oceanside with a tray of finely crafted, 6-inch long wooden surfboards.
After trading $10 for one of the boards, I took the trinket home for safe keeping, taking it out occasionally and wondering at the little board’s maker, how he is now revered as one of the world’s best guitar makers while remaining the same kind, humble person he was over 30 years ago.
Perhaps the humility is a result of Andy’s Christian faith and his seeing building a guitar for Taylor Swift as an inferior accomplishment to making a 30-foot-tall tree from a seed the size of the tip of his pinky finger. Regardless, I have never known Andy to make a fuss over his ability to build things.
Andy lives in Carlsbad with his wife, Mara, and three children: McCoy, Gwendolyn and Beacon. The Powers home is decorated with beautiful hand-crafted tables and chairs. A finless redwood surfboard made in the style of the hot curl boards of the 1940s decorates the front room. Unlike most fine art, this one is made for more than viewing. Powers paddles it out on occasion, and learns with difficulty, the nuanced skill required to ride this 60-some pound masterpiece.
Salt crystals drying on a wooden Alia surfboard in the yard also bear testimony to its having recently been ridden. There are restored old cars in the driveway and a stack of fine Matin Surfboards occupying their own spaces.
The workshop is an organized, dusty repurposed garage filled with the tools of Powers’ trade—saws, planes, chisels and items whose names I don’t know. As I approach the shop, Powers smiles, removes his headphones and greets me warmly. He then draws my attention to three 1-by-4-foot chunks of wood that appear no more significant than lumber on the sales rack at Home Depot.
Standing back to get a closer look, Andy says, “I’m trying to find a guitar in here. This wood was taken from the roof of Wrigley Field and some members of the Chicago Cubs sent them to me to build guitars.” He chuckles briefly at the impossible challenge we both realize he is up to.
Andy’s oldest son, 12-year old McCoy, who has his father’s curiosity and perhaps his talent, enters the shop, shakes my hand firmly and politely while holding eye contact. He is interested in his father’s work. Near the front door is an electric bike McCoy recently built and bears the unmistakably clean look of all things Powers.
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I will be reading from my newest book, “Windansea: Life. Death. Resurrection,” at the Del Mar Library on Coast Highway on Friday, June 13 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Books are available for purchase. I would be stoked seeing you there.
