I’ve been keeping something primarily to myself for a while. I ‘ve told a few select , and special people. just over a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. Stage 4 colon cancer to be exact. I was in the middle of the “I lost me to meth” ad campaign for Encompass Media Group, and the state of California. I was 85% done with the job and weighing in at 128 pounds. Now I am 6′1″ and usually weigh 175/180. I couldn’t physically work any longer, and the stress of this particular job was immense. I had to pull the plug on the job, and I thought my business was finished. My main contact at Encompass didn’t really help the situation, it took months to get paid, and when I finally did get paid, it was about $2000,00 less than what it should have been. I was just sick of calling and calling trying to get paid. I needed to make things stress free.

I went through months of depression, living in Huntington Beach, such a beautiful place, how could that be? Basically I came from nothing, no money, no brothers or sisters to partner with, and rocky relationships with both parents. I built Hive Distribution from the ground up. It started a long time ago in Oregon and Seattle when I was doing distribution of coffee beans for Equal Exchange, and doing postcard distribution for GoCard. I was nurturing my snowboarding career with odd jobs in the spring and fall.

After moving to Orange County, I met a great man that hired me to do some decorative painting in very high end houses. He took me under his wing and mentored me with Hive, and gratefully let me go to get Hive Distribution off the ground. He is an amazing man, who has done just about everything. That year(2007) Hive generated nearly $100,000 in revenue. It still is the most money I have ever made in one year. I look forward to getting the back business back off the ground soon.

In the meantime, you can find me surfing Rodeo beach, building kayaks or chillaxin by the pool at my new house in Marin County with my good friends Pam, Meg. Ross, and the animals. Initially, I feel more at home here, than anywhere else I have ever lived.