What's New

1 June 2002 - Slider's finally getting fixed

I finally am able to get my bike fixed from the big accident I had a while back. While I have been physically well enough for quite some time (after all, I'm playing on two intermediate level ice hockey teams) I have not been able to get the money together until now after the double whammy of emergency trauma surgery (not cheap even though I did have insurance) and the .com crash. Things are doing much better now so I'm finally getting the bike fixed.

The bike was torn down to the frame and taken in to The Frame Man to get the steering head untweaked. I should have it back in about a month and then I get to put it all back together again. I'm hoping to be back on two wheels sometime in mid-August.

16 February 2002 - It's now been a year since my accident

For the most part, I'm fully recovered. I've long since recovered from the removal of my spleen and other internal injuries I received in the accident. I have had full control of my leg back for about 6 months now and am almost back to full strength again. There is still some sensory loss along the inside of the lower half of the leg that may take a while to fully return, though.

Basically, I'm back to 100% for all practical purposes. I'm doing quite well on the ice and it's hard to even notice anything that gives away the fact that I couldn't move the upper half of my right leg for about 5 months. I have no lingering effects from the spleenectomy and don't expect anything later in life either.

While I have physically recovered from the accident, I am still dealing with some of the psychological effects of nearly dying; and knowing it. It really does change your perspective on many things in life. This is not to say that I don't do dangerous things anymore because I do; I just look at things a little differently now.

To all the friends who helped me recover, I thank you. I will always be grateful and sincerely hope that I never have to return the favor.

24 January 2002 - My WebCam is back online again

It took me long enough, but I finally got around to putting it back up. It's a streaming video now so you can spy on my while I work. Check it out.

15 January 2001 - I'm back from another South Pole attempt

A different group of Russians wanted to take a small group of skydivers to the South Pole to show that it could be done, and that they wouldn't strand anyone again. Well, to make a long story short, I bailed from the trip before leaving Chile this time but they did end up stranding a group of French tourists at the Pole and it cost each of them $25,000 each to get out. The Russians got out on their own.

I've said it before, but I really mean it this time; NO MORE TRIPS TO ANTARCTICA WITH RUSSIANS!!!

23 June 2001 - I'm back in the air again

The day after my accident in February I was supposed to be taking a good friend for his first skydive. Needless to say it got postponed. The delay was not a complete waste as I was able to convince another friend that he wanted to do it as well so we all went out to the DZ together. Of course, since it was time for 30,000' skydives again, that didn't at all affect the date chosen. (And if you're counting I'm now up to 24 from 30k or better)

I rode the plane up with each of them and jumped right before they did. Here's a link to my friend Chris Magnani's most excellent page describing his experience.

To the mothers of Chris and Arnie; honest, they had wanted to do it long before they met me. Really, it's not my fault that they're now both hooked.

20 May 2001 - I'm playing ice hockey again

After my accident I was off the ice for a while. I've been playin in pickup games for a couple of months now, but I just played my first real game on a team since February. It felt a little strange at first, but by the end of the game I was feeling a lot better.

I've gotten most of my skating back but acceleration is the main thing I'm still working on. Since that comes primarily from the quadricep, and that was the one muscle that was affected by the bruised nerve, once I build the strength back up I'll be flying around the ice just like I used to. I have near full control of the muscle back now so strengthening it isn't rocket science; just lots of hockey. Oh darn.

16 February 2001 - I have no spleen!!!

I was in a very severe, and near fatal, motorcycle accident that day and, among other things, lost my spleen. After 6 days in the hospital I was released, but I still have some recovery to do.

I also bruised one of the major nerves in my right leg. Fortunately, it was only a bruised nerve and not a severed one so it will, and is, coming back. It may be a few months before the leg is back up to full strength so I won't be playing hockey for a while but I will be back.

All in all, I came thru the accident remarkably well. I have had a great deal of support from my friends and family that helped quite a bit. It would have been much more difficult to have gone thru this without their support. I sincerely wish that any readers of this never have to go thru what I just did, but if you do, I hope you have a good support structure.

Like most people who have a near fatal experience, I am now questioning a lot of what life is all about. Why are we here, etc. If you've had a similar experience and would like to share some thoughts, please feel free to email me.

I will post some pictures of what is left of my bike, leathers and helmet soon. I would NOT have survived the accident if it had not been for the top-notch gear I had on. I will not, however, be posting pictures of the staples I had in my abdomen after the emergency trauma surgery. If you want that, you'll have to drop me an email and ask.

And yes, I will ride again. My bike was badly damaged but appears to be repairable. Slider will ride again.

15 December 2000 - Pictures from Friendship Tournament 2000

Back in early October, I attended the annual Friendship Tournament 2000 in Toronto Canada. It was a lot of fun and I will definitely be back next year.

Here are some pictures from the tournament.

3 December 2000 - More pictures of me on the ice

I'm playing on a team called the Arctic Blast this season. We are part of the in house league at the Oakland Ice Center.

Here are a couple of pictures from a recent game.

3 November 2000 - Give it your best shot

I've been playing ice hockey for quite a few years now, but I had yet to give goal a try. Some friends were kind enough to help me out at Hockey Workout in San Jose. Here's a picture.

Even though I don't think I would ever want to play goal full time, I did enjoy it and didn't do too badly, even if I do say so myself.

27 October 2000 - 30,000' and falling...

One of my hobbies is high altitude skydiving. Here is a picture taken this last spring at Skydiance Skydiving near Davis, CA.

In this picture, I'm the one on the right and was at about 25,000' (7600m) when this picture was taken. You can see the Oxygen mask that I'm wearing and part of the bailout system that I was using. This is the same system I used for my Antarctica trip.

If you look towards the upper left of the picture, you can see San Francisco Bay in the background. It's a bit hard to see though.

If you want more information about this sort of skydiving, check out Mike Wright's excellent page with answers to questions you didn't even know you had. If you go through the pictures section, you can see a few more of me at altitude.

27 October 2000 - Oops! I forgot my seatbelt.

A friend of mine recently sent me a picture of a skydiver hanging from a plane and asked me if I might enjoy doing that someday. If turned out that not only have I done it, but from the exact same plane over the same place, but in a different year than the one my friend was asking about.

Here I am just hanging out over the World Freefall Convention in 1997.

Needless to say, my answer to the questions was "Why yes, I think I would enjoy it."

12 March 2000 - I added my Antarctica pictures

I finally got around to scanning in all the photos I took on my recent trip to the bottom of the world. Right now, there are just pictures there, but I will be adding captions soon.

In the meantime, you can check them out here.

While I was at it, I cleaned up a few things on the site. I have been neglecting it horribly lately.

18 February 1999 - Bit of an update

I just updated things a bit. I've been very busy lately so site maintenance has fallen a bit behind schedule. Now that I've got a bit of time, I'm hoping to finally be able to finish putting together this site.

7 January 1999 - I just got back from Japan

WOW!!! I've never been someplace that made we want to come back only long enough to pack and move back there. I don't think I'll actually do it, but I highly recommend your visiting there at some point.

Here's a link that I like to visit from time to time to remind me of how good a time I had. Check out the Mt. Fuji cam.

23 November 1998 - The South Pole trip is off :-(

We came really close this year, but there were some financial issues that just couldn't be worked out with the Russians. I will still be involved for the trip next year doing the same "OxyNazi" job of making sure no one gets hypoxic.

Check out the "official" South Pole page for more information about next year's trip.

6 November 1998 - I'm heading to the South Pole!!!

I've been skydiving at the North Pole, and now it looks like I'm going to go skydiving at the South Pole as well.
For a variety of reasons, we're keeping the details a bit under raps, but there is some information here.

The part I can talk about is my role in the trip. I am the "OxiNazi;" i.e. the person who is responsible for making sure no one gets hypoxic at the increased altitude of the South Pole. Since ground level is at approx. 9500 feet, any jumps will be high altitude by definition. I will be setting up and running all of the Oxygen equipment for the jump.

26 October 1998 - My site is now being hosted on my own server.

Since I now have a new DSL line, I'm hosting my site locally rather than using space on my ISP's machines.

6 October 1998 - My site has been completely redone.

After letting my "new" site sit for almost as long as my "old" site, I finally got around to updating things a bit.