At the age of 11, I was plucked from my birthplace, Iowa, The Heartland. California became my family’s new home and where I and my family first experienced a taste of the Pacific shores’ salt water, Sun, waves, and the luxurious feeling of warm sand between my toes. I was soon hooked on surfing at a time when venturing into the California surf meant having strength and confidence enough to go without leash or wetsuit. After the early years of lessons learned body surfing, and mat surfing in Laguna Beach I would find my way to The Wedge, Dana Pt., Thousand Steps, Rincon, and Sand Dollar, plus dozens more breaks in between. Although I pushed limits in those early years, realizing I would never be the best surfer in the water instilled in me a lifelong respect for the Ocean and for the surfers whose talents far surpassed my own. Fifty years later I turned a lifelong dream into reality - I began hand building fine collector wood surfboards as my personal testimony to the craft, and to the greatness of original surfboard designers, shapers, and surfers. TrippSticks Boardworks was founded in 2008. The encouragement of family and friends, as well as direct mentoring from Shaun Tomson, Reynolds Yater, Gerry Lopez, Mark Richards, Bob ‘The Greek’ Bolen, Roger Nance, Scott Murray, Steve McKibben, Kevin Ancell, and many others, has emboldened my quest to find my personal style and unique artistic expression. I am grateful to all - customers, mentors, loved ones, and God, for encouraging and supporting my need to do this art, and how my work has found its way onto the walls of proud collectors from Michigan to Montana, California to Colorado, Texas to Hawaii.