I feel in love with bikes when I was 16, and shortly there after, entered my first race.  I instantly got hooked to racing.  I started with cross country and actually entered a two man freeride race right after my first cross country.  I  couldn't get past the excitement!  I went to the Snow Shoe NORBA National and raced the super-d and got my first taste of gravity racing.  I started to do some real downhill races, and got my downhill bike.  I was accepted to Lees-McRae College on a cycling scholarship for downhill which is where I first got my taste for slalom and mountaincross.  In my freshman year I made the nationals team for gravity and competed on the UCI World Cup track at Angelfire, NM for downhill and Mountaincross.  My nerves got the best of me and I crashed in both and finished 43 in DH and 44 in MTX.  In 2007 I went to my first national championship and proceeded to break my wrist.  4 months later I got my cast cut off, and had 3 weeks to prepare for the Collegiate National Championships.  With all the time off my training was screwed up, and my mental game was not at 100%.  I had a slight lapse in concentration and blew a corner big time into a half crash, but still finished 26th in the downhill out of almost 70 riders in the pro level field.  I'm now training better and smarter than ever with advice from some of the fastest people that I know, mostly all top ranked pro's either from the gravity or endurance side of mountain bike racing. 2008 will easily be my best season yet.