raisingarizona
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2020
Thanks Camp. I’m going to let it all hang out here and really tell my story. Harvey asked me to do something like this before but somehow I never got around to it.
I’m going to have to do it in parts and hopefully it’s not too boring or I seem like a self centered narcissistic ding dong. ?
Part 1.
I was born in Nyack. We lived on 3rd Avenue which was a steep hill overlooking the Hudson. My youngest memories are of doing laps down our streets sidewalk on my Dukes of Hazard big wheel, rebel flag seat and all! I’d run that thing all day long. I remember my Mom scolding me for wearing out the soles of my shoes every few weeks because they were the only way to slow down. I even ended up under a neighbor’s bumper while they were backing out of their driveway one time. He was pissed but got over it and before you knew it all of the neighbors knew to look out for the crazy little boy on his big wheel.
That was the very beginning of skiing for me. Pushing my big wheel uphill to go straight down that sidewalk over and over again was the start of something I’ve strangely done ever since.
My house while growing up wasn’t a whole lot of fun, it was often hostile and violent so this was the way I escaped that world. I was also an A.D.D kid so high speed motion naturally felt extremely peaceful to me.
In 1985 we moved from New York to Lake Telemark, New Jersey. My parents put me in a kids ski lessons program one night a week for two months at Craigmeur, the local 250 vertical foot ski area there. I was ten years old at the time.
I was immediately hooked. One of my most vivid memories is standing on my skis on my first run looking down the slope and thinking that it was the biggest hill I’d ever seen!
Getting dropped off at the ski area after school was like being freed from the stress and anxiety that home, and school created in my life. Like a lot of kids with A.D.D I had an extremely hard time with school which just added more drama to my parents turbulent relationship. I don’t want to put my parents on blast or get into details that no one really wants to hear and besides, by now you should get the idea that I wasn’t a very happy kid but when skiing all of my problems would just drift away.
This was the beginning of it all for me. The foundation for a life that’s been hyper focused on going down hill the entire time. It’s also the foundation for a life spent embracing and fighting addiction, depression, anxiety, ptsd and who knows what else. It’s not perfect or glamorous as I’d like people to believe but it’s real and it’s who the fuck I am.
Stick around, I’ve got a lot more to tell if you’re interested.
I’m going to have to do it in parts and hopefully it’s not too boring or I seem like a self centered narcissistic ding dong. ?
Part 1.
I was born in Nyack. We lived on 3rd Avenue which was a steep hill overlooking the Hudson. My youngest memories are of doing laps down our streets sidewalk on my Dukes of Hazard big wheel, rebel flag seat and all! I’d run that thing all day long. I remember my Mom scolding me for wearing out the soles of my shoes every few weeks because they were the only way to slow down. I even ended up under a neighbor’s bumper while they were backing out of their driveway one time. He was pissed but got over it and before you knew it all of the neighbors knew to look out for the crazy little boy on his big wheel.
That was the very beginning of skiing for me. Pushing my big wheel uphill to go straight down that sidewalk over and over again was the start of something I’ve strangely done ever since.
My house while growing up wasn’t a whole lot of fun, it was often hostile and violent so this was the way I escaped that world. I was also an A.D.D kid so high speed motion naturally felt extremely peaceful to me.
In 1985 we moved from New York to Lake Telemark, New Jersey. My parents put me in a kids ski lessons program one night a week for two months at Craigmeur, the local 250 vertical foot ski area there. I was ten years old at the time.
I was immediately hooked. One of my most vivid memories is standing on my skis on my first run looking down the slope and thinking that it was the biggest hill I’d ever seen!
Getting dropped off at the ski area after school was like being freed from the stress and anxiety that home, and school created in my life. Like a lot of kids with A.D.D I had an extremely hard time with school which just added more drama to my parents turbulent relationship. I don’t want to put my parents on blast or get into details that no one really wants to hear and besides, by now you should get the idea that I wasn’t a very happy kid but when skiing all of my problems would just drift away.
This was the beginning of it all for me. The foundation for a life that’s been hyper focused on going down hill the entire time. It’s also the foundation for a life spent embracing and fighting addiction, depression, anxiety, ptsd and who knows what else. It’s not perfect or glamorous as I’d like people to believe but it’s real and it’s who the fuck I am.
Stick around, I’ve got a lot more to tell if you’re interested.
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