Al Lewis created Sunbacker in February of 1979 as mainly a marine business. During high school, Al worked in a body shop and went to the navy. With three fun-filled far eastern cruises to Vietnam and 26 months in combat zones, Al realized it was time to move on to six years at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Al completed a 4-year apprenticeship to become a marine machinist. While working nights as a machinist, Sunbacker was created.

A business opportunity came up, so the name "Sunbacker" was adopted to get people back in the sun. It was a tag on the shoes Al was wearing that day. Have to thank the wife- we were in business. While mainly working on large yachts, fiberglass projects kept coming my way. When people needed weird things created, Sunbacker's name came up. After a couple of years, fiberglass repair and fabrication were all we were doing.