I like to say that I knew Andy Powers’ name even before he did. It’s been that many years since I first met his mother Nancy and father, Chuck, and older brother Sam.
While precocious, Sam was in diapers at the time, and so still a few years away from becoming the outstanding surfer, musician, and woodworker he is today.
As they grew, the brothers, and their soon to arrive sister, Sarah, were not like other kids. Thank home schooling and a loving family for their being polite, attentive, and embracing life to the fullest, especially when it pertained to the ocean or music.
The brothers were not yet in their teens when I bought a small wooden surfboard replica from them on the beach for ten bucks. I still have that board and find that it holds up as a nice piece of sculpture regardless of the age of the builder.
Over the years I would find the boys riding some of the offbeat surfboards they made: Ekstrom-inspired asymmetricals, Wegener- styled Alaia’s, wooden planks, and other more conventual board designs, most of which they ripped upon.
Stringed instruments are not easy to build, and while still in his teens, a ukulele Andy built caught the attention of famed musician Elvis Costello, who bought one.
This led to other famed musicians buying Andy’s instruments, local phenoms Jon and Tim Foreman of the band Switchfoot among them. Then came more surfboards and more guitars and the next time I looked up Andy had been hired as the head luthier for Taylor Guitars.
A few years back I visited Andy in the factory where he showed me a work in progress, a guitar he was building for Taylor Swift. I am no one to judge its musical capabilities, but the hand-crafted mother of pearl alone, slinking down the neck, made this a work of art rarely rivaled in my limited experience.
One thing led to another and without anyone noticing, Andy had become the CEO of Taylor.
A few weeks ago, I got a call from Andy requesting I monitor an event at Necessary Coffee/Maek Ceramics in the backstreets of Encinitas.
Taylor had brought in guitar shop owners and Taylor reps from as far afield as Boston to view a new guitar Andy was releasing. Of course, it was stunning, but that was not the point of the show.
Andy had wanted to reveal how growing up in the musical surf town of Encinitas had influenced his work, especially in the cross pollination between surfboards and guitars.
I had never considered that the two were linked, even though when I began surfing, the King of The Surf Guitar, Dick Dale had just released his album, “Surfer’s Choice,” music that to me still sounds like riding a wave. According to surf legend Skip Frye, “every wave has its own rhythm.”
From there it’s just a short leap to wondering what sort of music a surfboard would play if it was fitted with guitar strings.
I would ask Andy, but I think I already know his answer. It would probably be something like, “That depends on the wave, because Swami’s doesn’t play the same tune as Pipeline.”
