Tom Clawson, owner and founder of Bend Boats, is purported to be at least 42% river otter. How that's even remotely possible is not the right question to be asking, but know that if anyone's going to be first in the water, last to leave, it's Tom.

Tom had close friends in high school who mostly boated with their families, but had a hankering for more. More long drives, more heavy lifting, more fixing of broken gear and more time addressing other people's <ahem> output at the end of multi-day river trips. So they decided to enroll in a Guide School. Never one to miss a chance for more work at lower pay, Tom jumped at the chance and found himself training deep in the forests of SW Oregon on the Wild & Scenic Rogue River. It didn't take long before the hook was set and a legend was born...

From Galice to Maupin to Vida, through White Bird, Ashland and Rome, Tom has dipped his toes in all of Oregon's most iconic whitewater cataracts. From the laziest of eddies on the John Day in August, to the unbridled fury of Hells Corner Gorge, Tom relishes every single minute on the water. After mostly pushing rubber for a couple of decades, he decided that the smart(?!) move was to up the ante, and to explore the higher performing, and arguably higher consequence, world of wooden drift boats and dories. Starting with a Discovery Center workshop on the beautiful McKenzie River, Tom quickly found a passion in fashioning small wooden watercraft from scratch. He continues to develop his understanding, design and construction of classic drift boats whose features have been refined by woodworking legends over the last century, right in our very own backyard.

Eager to expand his own capabilities, Tom founded a workshop space in northeast Bend, OR that welcomes both expert and novice builders. With the opportunity to work alongside other motivated and talented river personalities, Bend Boats offers time, space and inspiration to those who would join us in forging both the classics of yesteryear and the innovations of tomorrow.

Want to build something special?

Join us.