HANDCRAFTED MODERN OUTDOOR SAUNAS
Storm Saunas are built in our workshop in Sooke, BC on Vancouver Island and founded by Sean Johnson. Sean’s early career path was in the snowboard industry as a sponsored professional snowboarder. Upon being washed up, he shifted into product design and development, brand management and video production. After exiting the snowboard industry Sean set out to follow his lifelong passion for building, something he had started during his snowboard years. He went to Timber Frame School at ISBA (Island School of Building Arts) and enrolled in the Carpentry and Welding programs at Camosun College. Sean has been working as a sober carpenter in residential house construction for the past 15 years. He has also done several passion projects that include custom saunas, live edge beds and tables, epoxy river tables, tree houses, off-grid cabins, wood bowl turning, carving, milling, metal fabrication and welding.
In recent years, he has focused on finishing carpentry, cabinetry and millwork installations. Sean has experienced firsthand how owning a private sauna can drastically improve overall health and quality of life.
“After years of destroying my body with impact sports, crawling on my hands and knees for months at a time installing baseboards and commuting hours a day in bumper-to-bumper traffic, my body and attitude were both deteriorating fast. With an unsustainable work and commute schedule it was very hard to spend quality time with my family and give my body the proper care, rest and recovery it needed. My life resembled an injured hamster hobbling on a wheel, struggling to move yet refusing to jump off. Something needed to change.
I remembered when I felt the best in my life. It was back when I was an apprentice Carpenter. I was living on the West Coast of Vancouver Island building houses, surfing every day possible and enjoying the sauna that I built in my backyard. The cold water surfing and exercise felt great on my body. The heat from the sauna really helped with my inflammation, body aches, stress and sleep. It was a calming and healing place that felt free from life’s storms. Over the years, I built more saunas for people and saw it as just another carpentry job. I never intended to build it into a specialized business.
Fast forward to today and I have once again incorporated my sauna and cold water routine into my life. I do the sauna and cold plunge 3-4 nights per week. It has given me a more positive attitude and has decreased a lot of my body pains and inflammation. It has lowered my stress levels and drastically improved my quality of sleep. I awake feeling well-rested, energized, focused and ready for the day.
Storm Saunas has been years in the making from the time I built my first sauna. The original 2012 sauna is still getting frequent use and is holding up very well to this day. Storm Saunas combines everything I have learned in construction, finishing carpentry and passion projects and placed them all under one roof. It brings a lot more meaning to my work knowing I can use my experience to deliver a high-quality product that can drastically improve people’s lives.”
Storm Saunas-Find your calm in the Storm.
In his spare time, Sean can be found spending time with his family, surfing, fishing or mountain biking.