He/ His/ Zig

Chicago, IL

Bellingham, WA

PNW Brand Rep

AIARE Rec 1

Being from the flat land, concrete haven of Chicago, snowboarding is the furthest thing from people's minds. Upon hanging up the Rugby cleats my senior year of college I needed something to fill my physical pursuits. I found it at a ski resort in western Illinois, that had 250ft of vertical. I remember my first snowboard run vividly. At the tender age of 23, I strapped into my first rental snowboard in front of all my college buddies & just went for it. Full speed ahead with no idea how to turn. I took a big toe side fall to the face, got back up and my life was forever changed. I was hooked.

Spontaneous trips up to the UP of Michigan & Wisconsin led to binge watching Art of Flight on repeat late night. Dreaming with my buddies, I knew that is what I want to do with my life, my friends thought I was crazy.

In 2015 I moved to Vail, where I went from knowing nothing about snowboarding(what is a splitboard?) to going on my first hut trip that season. After working multiple seasons at Cripple Creek BC, I dove deep into learning everything I could about avalanche edu, terrain, gear knowledge, mapping routes, etc. 

Since then, I've ridden in the backcountry all over the world; the Rockies, Alta Patagonia, British Columbia, Japan and the Pacific Northwest. I currently live in the PNW continuing my snowboarding progression here. The Cascades are my home mountains now.

The North American summer of 2017 I went on a month long backcountry splitboard trip to Patagonia. In August, we summited Volcan Villaricca, an active volcano in Pucon, Chile, saw spewing lava inside, and then rode 5k feet of fresh pow all the way down! It was the first time I saw lava, inversion clouds or a volcano. Snowboarding will take you to rad places!

Mother Nature can be an unruly beast showing the worst type of tough love. Humbling days come with lessons and experience that experts of the backcountry are continuously building upon. 

From being trapped in a storm, cliffed out forcing a retreat, crossing a river in waist deep water, to close call avalanches - each provide the ability to learn. Always have the primary goal of coming home at the end of the day. 

It is the most fun I have had on a snowboard. 

I work with Weston because our brand directly represents what I want to see in the future of snowboarding. Community, Safety and Sustainability, our core beliefs, is what sold me on Weston.  

Creating a community for everyone to come and be educated on how to travel safely in the backcountry, giving back to strategically aligned non-profits, all the while making some bomber boards. The choice was a simple one.

152cm Backwoods Split, 158cm 10th Mtn Split

Regular. 13, -7