..[if !IE]
..[endif]I was born and raised in San Francisco. Next to the youngest in a family of 8. I grew up poor as dirt. The house I grew up in had so many leaks I had to swap a bowl for a pan to cook some Campbell's soup. No joke. I could go on but no sob story here. You could do a lot worse that being poor in San Francisco. I loved growing up here and love living here now. It's like driving around in a post card.
I'm a relatively new dad and I think I got really lucky with our little dude Isaac. I'm sure not aiming for 8 kids like mom and dad though.
BMX is a big thing with me - the freestyle side mainly. I've been riding off and on since the mid-seventies when I was a grommet hanging out with my older brother Joe. Then skated for awhile tagging along with my other brother Ray. In the 80's, I got to be a part of the Golden Gate Park BMX Freestyle scene and was part of the BMX/Skate team thing Curb Dogs founded by Dave Vanderspek.
I also had the great fortune of being sponsored by Skyway. Free stuff, pictures in the magazines, US and European tours but best of all I made some really great friends and got to be part of a great community. I still ride here and there and am having a great time with my boy who is catching the bug. When he says things like "ride my bike...big jumps...my ramp" it's the best.
Another big phase that I've been going through is the home improvement phase. I took a year off work and turned my attic into two rooms, a bathroom with a deck off the back. Thanks to the help from my brother Joe and father-in-law Ken, I got to learn a ton of stuff about doing this kind of work. I work in computers but there are times I'd much rather be up on the roof with the sun out swinging a hammer.
I've always liked to work with my hands. Dad is an artist and always taught us how to make things. I was 10 when I first saw Star Wars and for a long time building scratch built spaceship models and making little super-8 movies were my creative outlets.
I'll post more pictures but for any friends or family who are curious about the BMX years, give Joe Kid on a Stingray a watch, checkout Mat Hoffman's book The Ride of My Life or see my site dedicated my friend and teammate Dave Vanderspek who died in 1988.
Blast from the past:
