My Essay to Airborne

Here is a copy of the essay that I wrote and entered into the Flight Crew contest:

I have had a passion for mountain biking for the past 16 years. I haven’t travelled a whole lot in my time, but I have ridden all over the east coast. I started out riding my brother’s old road bike on trails that my friends and I built behind my parent’s house. I decided then that I needed a mountain bike. I started out on really cheap, heavy bikes, but I couldn’t have been happier. I mowed a lot of lawns to buy my first “real” mountain bike in 1997: A Klein Pulse Pro. I continued riding and racing from then on until my bike was stolen in 2006. I was heart broken! I didn’t allow this to stop me though. I was on a mission to build another bike. Nothing was going to keep me from doing something that I had such a passion and love for. After finally building another bike, my passion was even greater. I was entering every race I could afford and going on trips to ride whenever I could. I have gained such a large group of great friends and have too many stories to tell. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, and still don’t have much, but that has never been a bother to me at all. I would show up for group rides on a bike I had ridden for thousands of miles and ride with people talking about all their new rides and fancy parts. I was just happy to be part of a group of people with the same passion that I have. That is why I would love to be a part of the Airborne Team. I would enjoy every second that I had to spend time with a team of fellow mountain bikers and spread the word of my experiences with the team. I would love to go out on a new Airborne and share every second I experienced on the bike and all of the stories that would come with shredding all of my favorite trails on it. So that’s me. A long-time, passionate mountain biker that enjoys nothing more than telling anyone I can about my experiences with this incredible sport.