Sawyer Wooden Board Company is a small operation located in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains at Lake Tahoe. The chief designers and craftsman have backgrounds in woodworking, sustainable building design (LEED certified), surfing, and stand up paddling. We have a unique blend of skills and interests for building wooden boards. We have established designs, templates, and construction techniques based upon empirical and engineered designs. We offer design services to provide computer files for construction or design consultation and we have provided designs for the Wiki Race boards produced by Wai SUP and we are working with Flatwater Paddle Co. (www.flatwaterpaddleco.com) to develop their production facility in Minden, NV. Flatwater is producing some of the fastest race boards available. We also repair surfboards and paddle boards.
We gain great satisfaction building beautiful, sustainable boards, and even greater satisfaction seeing our clients on our boards in the water and we love seeing our boards stored on display for all to enjoy! Anyone who has ridden a hollow wooden board will testify, the feel and ride quality is unmatched by foam or hollow carbon or glass fiber boards.
We take every chance we get to paddle surf and surf. While the Pacific is a few hours drive away, our lifestyles take us to the coast often during the year to enjoy our boards in the surf. Lake Tahoe, however, is just a bike ride away and we paddle Lake Tahoe regularly in the summer.
Lake Tahoe is an outstanding place to stand up paddle and we find our inspiration from this amazing place to build works of art and heirloom quality SUP’s. The clear water, incredible scenery, moods of the lake, and remarkable people make Tahoe a hub of SUP energy. Often in the afternoons wind swells get large enough to ride downwind and sometimes even break. Waist to shoulder high swells are not uncommon on Lake Tahoe and can make for exciting downwind runs. SUP touring on the lake is stunning. The granite boulders and sandy beaches lined with tall pines provide spectacular scenery. The hardy paddlers here paddle year round and small downwinder clubs watch for the southwester lies to kick up a swell. With so many awesome lake side restaurants and destinations along the way, it is not difficult to either find wilderness solitude, a festive family friendly scene or a little of both. Some of our favorite places to paddle are Emerald Bay and Meeks Bay Resort. A nice Tahoe Downwind is from Camp Richardson to Nevada Beach when it’s southwest (about 7 miles, 1-2 hours). Before you take on your first downwind, practice upwind paddling with shorter runs (1 mile). It get’s big out there and if you are falling in a lot, your energy won’t last and you could find yourself in an epic predicament.
In the winter we travel to the coast for surf or we telemark ski at home when the powder is good. We get copious amounts of snow here in Tahoe in the winter and we find ourselves grabbing for our planks frequently. Whether “going deep” into the trees at the resorts or climbing a peak for some freshies, we are just passing the time till paddle season.
We hope we can build a board with soul for you. Give us a call or email if you are interested.
Here’s an interview with our founder, Garrett, discussing the boards and their use.