Sailing

I got into sailing on a whim and with zero experience. One day in Minneapolis during a slow day of work, I decided to browse craigslist for sailboats. I found a beautiful used Coronado 15 for sale and sent an email to the owner and said I'd buy it. I had to pick up a trailer hitch for my Mazda 6 on the way over, and then I had to call all my friends and find a spot to park it. We had an incredible summer sailing that boat in Minneapolis' Lake Harriet and Wisconsin's Lake Pepin.

When i got out to California, I upgraded to sailing in the bay. I took lessons with a colleague out of Redwood City and later out of Pier 40 in SF. I now have my ASA 101 and 103 certifications and am looking for time to take further lessons.

Cycling

I enjoy road cycling and some very moderate mountain biking. I just sold my reliable Giant Defy 5 that I've had since 2016; it's time to upgrade to something a little more modern. I've done some cycling up along Skyline Blvd but I much prefer the loop that goes across Dumbarton bridge and circles around the bottom half of the bay.

Hiking

Like all the rest of the Bay Area professionals, I love getting doing hikes and Hot Pot. My favorites are Windy Hill and the Mount Diablo Six Peaks Loop. I'm working on tackling some 14er's; last year was my first 14er (Quandary Peak).

Amateur Radio

My brothers and dad all got our ham radio technician license at the same time and have consecutive callsigns (mine is KC9TLW). When we first got our licenses, we did some range testing from Grandad's Bluff in La Crosse down to Iowa. We also did some tests with the Wisconsin Interstate Network (WIN). A couple of us have since upgraded to a General license and bought a pair of Yaseu FT-857D radios to play with the HF bands. We set up some homemade dipole antennas in the parents' backyard and tried out the reverse beacon network.

Motorcycling

I had a brief motorcycle career that started with an old Ninja 250 and culminated in some motorcycle camping trips on a Husqvarna Svartpilen 401. We had a great crew of Loon riders that had some fun trips, and we did a long weekend trip up to Humboldt county. My motorcycle's starter died halfway through that trip, and I had to bump start the bike all the way back down the coast.

Some thieves tried to steal the bike out of my apartment complex about a year after the trip, but their attempts to hotwire it were foiled by the failed starter. About a year later, another batch of theives finished the job (they must have thrown the bike into a truck). I'm thinking about getting back into the game, but my sisters have some pretty convincing nursing stories that say I should find a safer hobby.