I’ve been riding a bike since I was a little kid. Back then I could barely touch the pedals and my marbles took a beating from time to time but I loved the freedom that a bicycle gave me. Over the years I progressed from a cruiser bike delivering newspapers to racing BMX to riding road bikes. The love of the bike never changed, just the bike. At a point in time, I spent 10+years as a bike mechanic becoming totally immersed in bikes and the community. Now I am focusing on trail building, enduro racing, and enjoying time on the bike.
On Stage 5 rolling through Ewok village trail. 2015 Photo: Rob Tampellini
The love of the bike never changed, just the bike
I’m very involved with and am passionate about mountain biking in the Mid-Atlantic Region and promote enduro racers and races through my website www.eastcoastenduro.com and a Facebook group that has over 1900 members and growing!
On course during practice of the 2015 Oktoberfest Super D at Blue Mountain Bike Park.
I am also an advocate for more mountain bike access in my community. While living in NJ and wasn’t training or racing, I volunteered my time creating, cleaning, and maintaining my local and other New Jersey trails as the JORBA (www.jorba.org) rep for Atlantic County for four years. Prior to being the Atlantic County rep, I volunteered to maintain or help build a number of trails in South Jersey and the Delaware Valley.
After moving to Bellingham, WA in the Fall of 2018, I quickly became involved with the WMBC (www.wmbcmtb.org) to start volunteering with trail maintenance. In the process, I learned where all of the trails were and who regularly maintained them. In 2019, after submitting a proposal, I was granted permission to build my first trail in Bellingham. Due to COVID-19, it was tough to get groups of volunteers out to help, so I had to keep it to one or two people helping. In the Spring of 2020, Swirlz was complete! More on that here.