How I got started
Dirty Jersey schooled and raised, I?d been shreddin? up the mountains of the east coast for close to a decade before I broke out on the junior level comp scene.
I finally got in the starting gates for Boarder X in the Catskill Mountain Series of the USASA?s by January of 2005. Regardless of the pneumonia that had rendered me bedridden for 2 weeks just days earlier, I raced and came in first by about 100 feet in my first heat. Rippin? into first place again in heat 2, I was tripped from behind goin? into a 180 left and slammed into by another rider sending me flippin?about 30 feet off the course. Without hesitation or conscious of the damage my body took I jumped back to the track and finished the race.
By the time I arrived home I had felt the impact of the crash. My lower back was a swolen bulge with gashes and definitely had signs of broken ribs, but I sucked up the pain and persevered on to the next event the following weekend. With Nationals on the line, I suited up with only a mummified taped up torso and managed to compete. I ended up 2nd overall for Men?s Open Class, earning the Wild Card and my place at nationals.
I spent the next 7 months resting my injuries, camping in a National Forest and livin? in a van gettin? ready for the next season. Armed with my new experience on the track and the respect I earned for my previous performance I took a position at Loon Mountain, N.H. as the prospective Head Boarder X Coach & level 3 Park Instructor. Right before the season started, while laying sod, that familiar pain from last March re-emerged more furious than ever. A friend of the family, who had a PHD, offered to look at my injury and patch up what he could free of charge, the only catch being I had to go down to Texas, where there isn?t even a smudge of a hill in sight, let alone snow. Unable to function and stranded with no health insurance I had no choice but to make the move down south. Dr. Venn, being the standup man he is, fixed me back to full capacity two weeks before the first competition of the 05'-06' season.
Stoked to be back on track, and psyched for the upcoming season I picked up some new sponsers and commuted from Dallas, TX to Angel Fire, N.M. for the USASA events and earned 1st place in Men's Open Class Boarder X. With only one additional weekend trip to Colorado, when the snow ran dry in New Mexico, I hit up the USASA Nationals in North Tahoe with only 8 days of riding under my belt this season, including the day of the comp. I suited up with my new SIXSIXONE protective gear and pulled off a 32nd place finish in boarder X at the nation's biggest snowboarding competition.
Started out the 06/07 season by movin' across the country to Lake Tahoe and kickin' it in the North Tahoe Series, along with competing in the X-Game Qualifiers and the Toyota Sick & Twisted Tour. Ended up the season bombin' the slopes of Alpine Meadows in the Mad Cow Downhill. Overall was a pretty sick season even with havin' to battle through a hard fall at the X-Game Qualifiers and a full-time jibby. But with my company up an runnin' I've seperatin' from havin' a work schedule and opened up a huge window to ride. Def. stoked about the upcomin' winter!!!
Goals for the Future
07-08 Schedule
- Chevrolet Revolution Tour Boardercross - Mt. Hood, OR
- Vans Unbound Boardercross - Mammoth, CA
- Canadian National Championships - Cypress Mt., BC
- The Kirkwood Cup - (Boardercross, Slopestyle, Halfpipe, Banked Slalom, Freeride)
- World Cup NorAm Boardercross - Banff, Alberta
- Mountain Dew Freestyle Series 4 Boardercross - Mt. Bachelor, OR
- South Tahoe Series Open Class Boardercross - Sierra at Tahoe, CA
- Toyota Sick & Twisted Halfpipe - Squaw Valley, CA