CURRENT MISSION

I've been traveling around the world the last 11 years full-time in search of adventure, excitement, connections and stimulating experiences.

ABOUT ME

I am one of those enthusiastic optimists who believes life should be one long spontaneous, action-packed adventure filled with as many exciting new experiences as I can cram in. I'm easy-going, down-to-earth, and ultra adaptable to my surroundings. I love to have a good time and make new friends. My best friend Warren passed away while I was studying at Cornell so I determined to make this life twice as magical for the both of us! Missing him is my daily reminder that life is short and tomorrow is never guaranteed so we must never surrender the night early!

I spent 6 months backpacking around SE Asia the second half of 2013 as my first big solo backpacking trip and it changed my life. I basically never stopped traveling after that. It's been 10+ years and a lot of countries/states now. I prefer to travel spontaneously and just make it up as I go (hence the last-minute request you're likely to receive from me). I love to motorcycle and in general, I'm an adrenaline junkie and believer that fear is an indicator that you're expanding your comfort zone. Standup comedy is my biggest passion. I like to explore abandoned places. I love to jump fences and have a general disdain for convention and rules (though not your house ones!). I like history especially as it applies to modern-day, and photography. I love graffiti/street art and wish every spare bit of concrete was commissioned to artists to inject with color. I usually don't have much interest in the most touristy things to do. I want to experience how the locals live and go about regular life in new places, pretend I am one living there instead of just a guest. More like, "What would you do on a Tuesday?" rather than "What would you do if you were showing a tourist around on a Tuesday?"

PHILOSOPHY

Be a human golden retriever.

Life is short, try new things at every opportunity.

Say YES. Be a YES man. Don't be a NO man.

First, you put yourself out there, THEN the amazing things happen. You can't expect anything amazing to happen if you don't first put yourself out there.

Treat everyone like you would treat anyone.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I am always excited to host people as I believe that we are meant to help one another the best we can. We get back the kindness we put out into the world. I don't always have a place to host (and am usually traveling myself) but when I do, I am forever happy to open up my doors to strangers. I have an unquenchable thirst for learning about our world, seeing things from different perspectives, and making new friends from alternative backgrounds to my own. If I can host you in Vail, Colorado or somewhere else I've posted up around the world for a while, I can't wait to share some stories and open my mind to learning from each other.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I've been very fortunate to have gained many years of experience on the road traveling and staying with friends. I usually meet and stay with friends in my travels outside of CS.com as I'm an extreme extrovert who prides himself on striking up a conversation with anyone foolish enough to come near me. But I have also stayed with dozens of people through the website with nothing but amazing experiences ensuing. On one 19 month trip, I couchsurfed for a few months in Western Europe, mainly Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands and Germany entirely with friends met traveling other places. I also couchsurfed with Todd (last minute savior), Bernard (invited me for Thanksgiving with his friends), and others when motorcycling down the west coast of America from Seattle to San Diego, to Colorado. I couchsurfed the last three World Cups in Brazil, Russia and Qatar (Russia has one of the best, most active CS communities of any country I've experienced), part of the first two with my best friend Connor, and many months with friends in Colorado, upstate New York, etc. I host surfers whenever I have the chance, often in Vail as they pass through the valley skiing or traversing America along I-70. Strangers are just friends you haven't been lucky enough to meet yet!

Interests

Traveling, making connections with new people and learning that the more places I go and people I meet the more I can relate to lifestyles and cultures that are different from the environments that I'm familiar with. I spend my spare time playing and following almost every [American] sport, (though I certainly can appreciate a high level of competition in sports I am less familiar with such as AFL, sepak takraw, rugby, muay thai and countless others), hanging out with friends, skiing, motorcycling, camping, hiking, watching movies, ruminating on my next travels, taking photos, etc. Also, I'm a bit of a night owl, and as the day goes on I usually get more energy, so my average bedtime is usually well past midnight. I believe that life is all about trying to cram a little more into today. I definitely love standup comedy and hope to give it my full effort one day.

• writing
• street art
• photography
• cooking
• exercise
• working out
• drinking
• motorcycles
• movies
• board games
• reading
• traveling
• investing
• poker
• live music
• hiking
• camping
• whitewater rafting
• scuba diving
• skiing
• cliff jumping
• sports
• baseball
• basketball
• soccer
• hockey
• tennis
• volleyball
• golf
• lacrosse
• badminton
• extreme sports
• languages
• language exchange
• beaches
• mountains
• friends
• adventure
• watching movies
• football
• street food
• ice skating
• gym
• climbing
• standup comedy
• happiness
• motorcycling
• graffiti
• sunsets
• ice hockey

Music, Movies, and Books

Music: I enjoyed country music as a kid, alternative rock/punk in middle school, classic rock in high school, rap/hip hop and then electronic in college, classical when I studied, now any and all of the above with my favorites being classic rock and EDM. There's a time/mood/feeling/place in which I can appreciate almost any genre of music.

Movies: Captain Fantastic, American Beauty, About Time, The Big Lebowski, Almost Famous, The Lives of Others (German), Road Trip, Before Sunrise, and Blow are some of my favorites. I love movies and documentaries. If it's good, I have probably either seen it or want to, though I don't watch nearly as many as I used to.

TV: Jeopardy, Seinfeld, Breaking Bad, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Sopranos, Shark Tank, South Park, ESPN, most sports...updated: Atlanta, Ted Lasso, Yellowstone, Master of None, Euphoria, The Last of Us, House of Dragons, Severance.

Reading: Hemingway, Bill Simmons, Malcolm Gladwell, Ken Follett, Mitch Albom, Yuval Harari, Paulo Coelho, Anthony Bourdain, Neil Strauss, Tim Ferriss, Michael Lewis, Tim Urban, Derek Sivers, Esther Perel, Naval Ravikant, Wandering Earl, Rolf Potts - Vagabonding, some other titles: When Breath Becomes Air, Shantaram, Ready Player One, Chasing The Scream, Mindset, Crime and Punishment, Man's Search for Meaning, Marching Powder, Stumbling Upon Happiness, The Alchemist, The Choice - Edith Eger, The Happiest Man on Earth - Eddie Jaku, What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, Mating in Captivity.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I'll always remember being on a family RV trip to the southwest US when I was ten and visiting the Grand Canyon. My dad woke us up at 4am to watch the sunrise over the canyon. My older brother Andy and I didn't want to get up and threw a fit asking to stay behind sleeping in the RV. Characteristically, my father knew what was best for us and probably uttered his and all father's classic go-to phrase in demanding that we were indeed going, "Because I said so!" and that was the end of the argument. I ended up gaining one of the prettiest memories I can recall of the gorgeous reds, oranges and yellows first slowly piercing out of the darkness before finally erupting throughout the sky to light up and expose the unfathomable vastness of the canyon sprawled out before us. Thinking to my 10-year-old self that I had almost missed this sight that was truly too beautiful for words due to my desire to be lazy, comfortable and sleep in, I pledged to myself that from that day forward, I would be a yes man who would try anything once and do my best to fully experience every opportunity that life afforded me because we only live once and I have learned that the things I thought I would never do or don't want to make myself do are often the things I remember and cherish the most.

Since then, I've been fortunate to travel to 80ish countries and cross too many things to mention here off of my "What Would Excite Me" list. But if you're interested, I can't wait to tell you some stories in person, from wedding invitations from strangers I met on the street in Egypt, Poland and the Philippines, to getting my laptop stolen and recovering it 9 days later with Prey Project in Peru, penthouse couchsurfing with a professional poker player I met drinking on the street in Brazil, winning on The Price is Right TV game show in LA, fighting off a late-night mugging attempt my first night in Vietnam, walking the camino across Spain, plowing through police checkpoints set up to stop me in Nepal on a rented motorcycle after someone hit me, running with the bulls twice in Pamplona, selling world cup tickets to Russian gangsters, hitchhiking from Ukraine to Portugal, Burning Man twice, motorcyling down the west coast of the US for 4.5 months, to smuggling dynamite and myself into Paraguay, I have a lot of wild travel experiences from 10+ years traveling around the world to share.

Teach, Learn, Share

I have a big sense of humor (I view everything through the lens of humor), as well as an expansive knowledge of sports and movies, and a wealth of travel stories and advice. I have at least 200+ downloaded movies, hundreds of great electronic books/audiobooks, and ~7000 songs on my harddrive that I'm happy to give you.

I could give a decent TED talk on how to travel cheaply or fly for free using credit card miles. I can also teach you about basic stock/crypto investing of your travel savings/the miracle of compound interest.

If English is not your first language, I would be more than happy to help you practice and improve your ability, I have hundreds of hours of formal practice volunteering with English Immersion Programs with Diverbo and Angloville (highly recommend both companies) in Spain and Poland. I also briefly taught English and Math in Cambodia as a volunteer with an NGO school.

I know my way around a kitchen and would love to cook together or for one another.

What I Can Share with Hosts

If I request to stay with you, it’s because I see the potential for a real connection between us. You are not just a couch to crash on and continue with my travels, I have plenty of money for hostels/Airbnb's if that's all I have time for or I want the privacy. You’re a person I'm interested in getting to know, a stranger I'd like to make into a friend because you seem cool/interesting to me. I can promise I read almost every word of your profile (even if it's as long as mine haha) and many references, and thought to myself, “I want to meet this sweet human!”

Funny stories, great sense of humor, travel inspiration, large movie, book, music collection, a bit of cooking ability (happy to whip you up a meal or take you out to dinner if we connect), motorcycle ride, secret ski shacks, I've got a pretty nice camera and can take some nice photos of you if you'd like and I have a hard time not sharing my try anything positive attitude! I also like to write really detailed, thoughtful references that I think of as living eulogies. Ever since my buddy Warren died, I think it's a shame we wait for someone to die to say all the nice things we'd like to about them. I try to say these things to your face and in your reference, not at your funeral. Also alcohol...I never drink alone so we can definitely have some drinks together if you're interested!

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Laos, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, U.S., Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, England, Russian Federation, Sweden, Thailand, United States