10 plus years ago I was working as a software developer for the Department of Defense. We had a great team and I enjoyed working to develop mostly PHP/MySQL solutions for the language school. However I was not taking care of myself physically. Only in my 30’s and the doctors told me I had the knees of an 80 year old. I was headed for an ugly future. Something needed to change. That’s when I found mountain biking.Horribly out of shape I spent most of my time hiking my bike up the hills in those early days of riding. But I had found a new passion. Soon I had built mtbhawaii.com and was mapping out all the trails on the island. Eventually it became the number one site for mountain biking in Hawaii. Soon, folks were contacting me from all over the world through the website about riding in Hawaii. I ordered a small fleet of Rocky Mountain bikes, worked out deals with several land owners and started doing tours. I met great people around the world and in the bike industry which let to many opportunities. One of the most rewarding mountain bike projects was working with Whistler Trail Solutions to develop the mountain bike trails at Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu. I love it when young kids tell me that Turtle Bay is their favorite place to ride! Eventually I teamed up with other riders and we started producing races. I didn’t make as much money but I was happy and healthy. I even took the PMBIA course in Whistler and started as a mountain bike instructor. Mountain biking had changed my life. Although I wasn’t a full-time programmer I still found ways to use many of my previous skills. I developed all the websites for my business and races. I managed the HTML, CSS and Javascript, filmed the media, images and used many of the skills I had developed over the years. I implemented a variety of third party software into the sites including reservation software, race timing features and even built in the full suite of Trailforks widgets. Sadly it all came crashing down when COVID hit. Hawaii shut down the airport for more than half a year and tourism literally stopped over night. With no end in site for COVID I had to make other plans. Returning to programming felt right. I spent two years during COVID catching up with new technologies and refreshing my core programming fundamentals.I eventually reached a point where I felt confident enough to start applying for work. Since then, I've worked as a developer at Brigham Young University Hawaii with an amazing team and am currently employed at Outside Inc, working as a developer on the Trailforks mapping application.