A native of the area, I was born at MacDill Airforce Base, and I grew up in the Town and Country area of Tampa. I spent most of my time chasing three of my brothers around on foot and on bike.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a bicycle of some sort. Up through the 8th grade, my younger brother and I were fortunate enough to be able to ride our bicycles to school. Then off to public school where it was buses, driver’s licenses acquisition, and a car. After graduating from Jefferson High School, I dabbled with college at USF, got married, got an adult job and began my adult life. Many years later I completed my BS in Business- Information Systems Management at USF.

Cycling came back to me much later. As I said before, I’ve always had a bike of some sort; I just didn’t ride much for a long time. I think it must have been spring of 2011 that I decided I needed to get out with folks and thought bicycling would be the answer. I was working from home as a telecommuter and just didn’t have much face to face with people anymore. I had built up a beautiful city bike and wanted to test her out so I showed up at a group ride put on by the Suncoast Cycling Club up in Palm Harbor. I hopped on the slow ride and kept up with them doing 12-14mph.  It felt like being a kid again. I was so excited that I had "mostly" kept up, that I showed up every Saturday after that. Various bikes passed through my hands during this time so I didn’t struggle as much to keep up. I was also convinced (suckered in) to sign up for the 2012 MS150 ride out of Lake Wales. In preparation I got into building bikes up for myself in order to get one that was perfect for me.  That is what really got me interested in this industry, and out of the corporate world. I realized how much I enjoyed fixing things. No surprise, my father had been a mechanic. You know what they say about apples and trees. Since then, I’ve participated in several charity rides. I also completed a century ride, thank goodness I don’t ever have to do that again.

In 2013, I made lots of changes in my life, including moving to Gulfport, leaving my job, and sending myself to Barnett Bicycle Institute in Colorado Springs to learn how to work on bikes. I was going to follow what was now my dream of working in a bicycle shop. After returning from class, I spent a little over a year at a shop in North Pinellas, and was fortunate enough to be brought on at ABC Bicycles in March of 2015, a bit closer to home.

My wife Kristi and I got married in October 2015, and bought a house in Dunedin to share with our family of pets, and be closer to her family’s home. I guess I’m destined to commute from one end of Pinellas County to the other. No worries though, I love it here and have no plans of leaving. Just here living my dream.

Most days you’ll find me at the 4th Street location where I’ve been for quite a few years now. I’ll either be on the sales floor or helping out in service. Come by and say hi!