"Trail rider" is probably the best overall description of my riding style. Downhill is definitely my favorite part of riding but I love getting out in the backcountry on epic trail rides as much as possible. I ride every day whether it's on the local trails, jumping some local dirt jumps, doing some street riding at night, or taking trips across the US and Canada to take in everything that mountain biking has to offer. I've been trail riding since I was 13 and haven't stopped since. Riding cross country in Indiana got me started and after taking trips to Colorado and Utah I became hooked on downhill riding. I moved to Colorado after college and got into the DH scene in the front range. I recently moved to the LA area and have made many good friends here that I ride with every weekend. All the while, I still love to take my all mountain rig out for some nice 20 or 30 mile epic trail rides.
My profession is high school teaching and I'm always scouting for motivated teens to promote mountain biking. I taught at an alternative high school near Vail, Colorado and was fortunate enough to run a downhill mountain biking class for my students. Each Friday for 6 weeks our school secretary would should the crew up our local DH trails all day. My students from Indiana and Colorado still call me and we talk about bikes and riding quite often. If that's not rewarding, then I don't know what is. The riding scene at my local high school in Torrance, California is small but I'm making efforts to improve it. I do some dirt jumping with some of the 20" riders and ride downhill on occasion with some of my students. With the formation of the Socal Interscholastic Cycling League, I am eager to get a team started at my school.