I was born in Vail, Colorado and lived most of my life in the mountains. At the age of three my parents put me on my first pair of skis. My father was one of the pioneers who started the evolution of freestyle skiing, not to mention, was in a few James Bond movies, an amateur and pro racer and participated in many more skiing accomplishments. My cousin raced for the US Ski Team as well so I guess skiing was in my blood from birth. I fell in love with skiing right away. My older brother Ray was there by my side on my first days doing every challenging activity that we could think of. Whether it was motocross, rock climbing, skiing, biking, cliff jumping, soccer, or anything that could draw blood, we did it all. I joined the ski teams from Sun Valley ID, Vail CO, Steamboat CO, Big Sky MT to Alyeska, Alaska. I just dedicated my life to ski racing. As I got older I traveled the country competing in ski races all over seeing some of the most beautiful mountains you could ever imagine. I traveled most of the time with my older brother and my parents who were all very big inspirations to me.

At the age of ten we left on a family adventure to Alaska. My father was always there for my brother and me. We started a fishing camp on the Talachilitna River 100 miles northwest of Anchorage in the middle of the bush. It was a fly-in flyfishing river camp and it was the best bonding a family could have. My brother and I became fly fishing guides at a very young age. We would take guests fishing and show them a true Alaskan experience. For our family it was a wonderful exciting time living our summers on a river working and fishing. Daily we had bears, salmon, river floats, float planes coming and going and a life only one could dream about really. As you can imagine, flying entered our lives and with it a desire to become pilots so the boys in our family all got their pilots licenses which was a real thrill.

In the winter we would head back to Anchorage where my brother and I would train and race at Alyeska, which is a great ski mountain in Alaska. As my skiing career kicked off, I moved all over, skiing places like Vail, Steamboat, Big Sky, Sun Valley, Mt Hood and all being some of the best ski areas in the United States. As I was giving everything I had into skiing, I spent half the summers training in Mt Hood, Oregon skiing for several summers and the other half in Alaska helping the family run the fly fishing business. I was a young kid living the life, home schooling, fishing, motocross, rock climbing, mountain biking and having a very cool family, "life was good”. As I got a little older my skiing was finally hitting on all cylinders. Then the set backs in life came along as well. I struggled with knee surgery after knee surgery and sitting out recouping in the mountains was not possible so I went to Florida and I found myself in Naples, Florida. One winter after a double knee surgery a new adventure started. I had seen kiteboarding with my parents in Hood River, Oregon in the summers when I needed a break from skiing up on the glacier.  In Florida I started to dabble with this new sport of Kiteboarding. Like skiing in a couple of months, I was hooked and I went full on and devoted my life to it. A couple of years later I established myself as one of the top kiteboarders in the world.

“Now here I am talking to you!”

I am so blessed as my kiting career has taken me to places like, Israel, Australia, Greece, all over Europe, Honduras, Brazil, most islands in the Caribbean and many more. In the past 7 years I have been on the podium in many different disciplines in our sport from freestyle to course racing to speed and slalom racing. La  st year wrapped up with incredible highs being selected the World Kiteboarder Of The Year and ending up Slalom World Champion. In addition to the year of competing and traveling I helped in Santander, Spain showcase our sport of kite racing in front of the Olympic committee. As its always been my dream to have Kiteboarding in the Olympics. Giving the youth a better chance of a great life in this incredible sport.

With the best Sponsors in the world.  I would never be where I am without them. They have supported me and shown me ways to grow. I am very grateful for their support and certainly could not have accomplished what I did without their support.

I find it funny, as you get older, you really start to see things differently. Winning is not the drive any more as it is the challenge that gets the blood pumping and the overall enjoyment and challenge of the experience. Life is such a gift. I am so grateful for every day and every new experience.

Thank you all...... Damo