Alexa and Bob Dill

Alexa and Bob Dill

After graduating from LJHS and doing his best to not be drafted, the Army tracked him down in Vail, Colorado. He spent four years in the Army Security Agency. Three of those years were spent in Korea. He returned to La Jolla for a year but left for Steamboat Springs, Colorado in the fall of 1970. I joined him there after graduating from UCSB in December of that year. We lived the ski bum life for three winters and were married there in 1972. 

When the economy took a turn for the worst at the ski resort, we decided, perhaps, we should go in search of "real" jobs and ended up in Seattle, Washington as Bob had relatives there. We made an explorative pass through Seattle during a uniquely sunny moment...thought "This is GREAT!"...and moved there. By the time the rains hit, it was too late and we were committed. We ended up staying there for 13 years. Bob started out building custom kayaks and canoes for Easyrider and then fell back on his building skills and started doing cabinetry and furniture making. We had our own company for part of the time and he also worked as foreman for one of the very high end commercial woodworking firms in Seattle.

In 1979, Bob purchased his first Windsurfer...and our lives changed again. Within a short while he started making custom glass boards in our garage in Seattle. The boards caught the attention of one of the new shops in a place we had never heard of - Hood River, Oregon. The owner kept asking for more boards so we traveled south into the Columbia River Gorge to see what was going on...and we were hooked. By 1985 we had opened up one of the first custom board manufacturing shops in Hood RIver. We were in the "Aspen" of the windsurfing world at the start of an amazing transformation of a dying logging town into one of the premier outdoor sports destination spots on the west coast. For eight years Dill Sailboards was the largest producer of custom glass windsurfers in the country. 

In 1993 we left the shop (not all partnerships are made in heaven) and Bob went back to the business of building high end kitchens. 

During this period in Hood River, Bob's obsessions included windsurfing and fishing. This was followed by our several years of riding Ducati motorcycles. After a deer tried to occupy the same spot in the road as Bob on Memorial Day 2007 resulting in a Life Flight trip to a Portland hospital and 9 days in the trauma unit, we decided that we had pushed that one far enough and should try something a little less adrenaline driven. 

So...for the past four years, Bob has been perfecting the art of guitar making. He is currently on number 79. We have them in two music stores and an art gallery. We have also been fortunate enough to have two professional singer/songwriters purchase his guitars to use on tour. He is having the time of his life. He disappears into his shop first thing in the morning after we take the dogs for a walk, and only re-emerges for dinner. He has spent a lifetime using his hands - from shaping sailboards to cabinetry to fine furniture - but guitar building has been his most challenging and satisfying pursuit.