I am 34, and have a great family. I love my life. I have a great job working for local artists as a mold maker and production specialist. With the down turn in the economy most people dont have the money for fine art and I have seen a huge drop in buisness. I am trying to keep my head above water and am planing to go back to school, although I don't know what for. I hope to start a non profit buisness for returnig serviceman and wemen and their familys, with emphasis on disabled vets, in which I can use my experience as a river guide and the equipment I have collected. Over the last 9 years I have built a J-rig "a 22 ft pontoon boat capible of running class five big water rivers like grand canyon and cataract canyon"unlike any other and have tested it 5 times through cataract canyon. In 2006 I hit peak runnoff in cataract and ran close to 80,000 cfs, and the boat performed excelent. I took a friend of mine with cancer down at 40,000 cfs and again the boat did great. I have over $40,000 dollars worth of equipment that I have collected in order to start the buisness but in 2007 I had a little girl and time and money were redirected. I hope to start up with plans again, but am now at the buisness end of the task: insurance, license, funding, etc. the last part of this plan is a huge wall, oops "opertunity". I thought tools might help with meeting this goal .

I grew up in Albuquerque New Mexico. as a child I did not participate in many sports because of asthma. The asthma did not effect me when I swam and so I swam alot. I was part of a swim team most of my youth and eventually sucum to adolesants and gave in to popularity. The quest for friends and recognition lead me down a somwhat self destructive path and though I managed to stay out of jail many of my "friends" did not and over 70% are dead, disfunctional,  or in jail. At 16 I did however meet a young woman I loved deaply and dated her on and off until my early 20's at which time we went our seperate ways, not by my decision. The loss of her in my life sent me further down the already self destructive path untill the death of my friend and cusin due to a heroine overdose. The summer he died my mother invited me on a river trip through Cateract Canyon. As the trip ended I had the strangest feeling that I had found what felt more like home than any place else. I asked the guide of the trip how I could become a guide and upon returning to albuquerque I did as he said and more. I sent out 14 aplications to river companies and began kayaking lessons. I was not a natural at the sport and it took several years of kayaking to feel comfortabe. I interviewed with three companies in the spring and after bieng turned down by all of the outfitters I had only one interview left. I felt that it literally was life or death to become a cat guide and explained to the manager that " I am a Cat guide and I either work for you or your neibor, you chose." Of course with an attitude like that I was hired with the understanding that it would take several years of class 2 and 3 rapids before I ever guided Cat, if I ever would guide it at all. After one year a position opened unexpectedly and because I was willing to show up early and accept no pay for training a month and a half I eventually ended up with a position among the other Cat guides. All of these guids had been running for at least 9 years and some almost 30. No trust or respect for the new guy I battled with belittling coments from my coliges for two years. LMOT, low man on the totum pole. I remenber one morning aftrer being verbaly destroyed by one of the guides I told him " I know that this is your canyon, but one day you will be gone and then it will be mine." An attitud of determination and a few more years of experience I was no longer LMOT and slowly the low wages and inflation forced the veterines of the canyon out. It was sad to see them leave, for one we did become good friends and two I never realised how much secuity they had to offer. I eventually became the lead guide, and with this position came great resposibility. They say that the third year guide is the most dangerious of all. They have enough balls and experience to put themselves in the most dangerious of situations. The boats we run are powered by a 30 h.p. motor and weigh aroun 6000 lbs.. At 22 feet they are capable of taking 10 persons plus a guide and an assistant. these boats look big but in High water they are not as big as they appear. The rapids in cat are almost all right on top of each other leaving no room for recovery of a capsized boat in some areas and these 22 foot monsters have been known to go upside down if the conditions are right and the boatman not up to his or her game. In 2006 The wave at big drop 2 measured around 46 foot on the face. I believe that the wave at rapid seven was even bigger than that. The combination of big water and inexperienced guides is a deadly combo and as head guide you are responsible for all boats in your party. I became a lead guide in aroud 2002 and the water level never got high but we did have to deal with new guides and water levels lower than any one had seen before, and the year with all of its difficulties left me with the strongest relationships I have ever known. I did return to Albuquerque and began dating the girl I was so in love with in my teens. We maried in 2005 and I stoped guiding in 2006, with a new baby on the way. The people I ran the Colorado river with are all still good friends and stay in contact with each other through out the year. In the group of guides there are 5 new babies and hope of future river running blood. Some are starting the babies eary while I prefer to wait untill my daughter is old enough to understand what we are doing. Weather it be flat senic sections of river near a road or class 4-5 in remote canyon country I want my little girl to have a great respect for the river, after all I believe as easily as it saved me I would assume if I lack respect she could just as easily kill me. Check out the canyonlands national park websight and click on high water videos to see one small section of cataract.http://www.nps.gov/cany/planyourvisit/rivervideos.htm