Profile

What Makes Me Tick

Being in the great outdoors with my family and loved ones is what I'm about. From snow skiing skiing, surfing, windsurfing, fishing, wakeskating/wakeboarding, hunting and mountain biking, I have learned an appreciation for everything wild from my upbringing in the great state of Michigan.

Skiing:

It seems all I cared about was going fast, so the logical thing was to get involved in racing. I spent several years in the USSA and a few in college racing. Thanks to the support of my family I became a fairly good ski racer. I later became a level one United States ski coach and began to teach kids at my local ski area. Two of them made it to the Junior Olympics. I now live in the Bay Area only three hours away from Lake Tahoe and some of the best skiing in North America.

Mountain/Road Biking:

What can I say... after the training wheels came off I was hooked for life! I mountain biked on mostly single track back in Michigan through deciduous forests. Now I find myself climing Mt. Diablo on a road bike more often then not. Nothing like that last quarter mile of 13% grade to make you feel alive (or close to dead).

Windsurfing:

I can remember standing on the shore of Lake Michigan watching one of my friend's older brothers doing this strange new thing he called windsurfing. He had taken lessons on his vacation in Hawaii and bought a board when he got back. The rest of that summer was spent by the three of us trying to teach each other how to master the sport. The next summer my Dad saw my love for the sport and paid for my first board and I dropped out of Little League Baseball to become a windsurf bum. I honestly can't remember getting off that board the whole summer and the rest is history. Now I'm a half hour away from Rio Vista, one of the top ten places for windsurfing in the world.

Surfing:

I have always been interested in surfing. Even before I owned a board I scribed to Surfer Magazine and I would flip through the pages reading about magical places like Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz. I bought my first board at age sixteen and taught myself to ride on the smaller wave days at Lake Michigan. Soon I was spending most of my summers praying for storms that would bring big waves in or waiting for the month of August when the wind would take a more Northwest direction and would turn the lake into a tyrant of eight to ten footers. Now I'm a one and half hour drive away from Steamer Lane.

Fishing:

I can't really remember the first time I went fishing, but there is almost no place I'd rather be than hip deep in a trout stream. Back in my days in Michigan I was mainly after Large Mouth Bass, but also caught many other species like Pike, Tiger Musky, Small Mouth Bass, Jumbo Perch, Steelhead, Brown Trout, Brook Trout, King Salmon, Coho Salmon, Bluegill, Sunfish, Rainbow Trout, Catfish and Carp (with bow and arrow as well as rod and reel). Now that I'm close to the High Sierra I find myself in pursuit of the many varieties of trout found in the lakes, rivers and streams of the high country.

Hunting:

This is more of a passion of being in the woods than anything else. Back in Michigan I would spend hours practicing with my bow and never took a Whitetail. I can't say that I really care about not getting a deer. All I know is that I could shoot a sweat bead of a fly's forehead at twenty-five yards with my bow and that is good enough for me.

Wakeskating/Wakeboarding:

I'm just getting into this now. Wakeskating and wakeboarding are a blast and I love being on the water so, I can see these becoming my new passion.