I have spent my life forging my own path, but the ocean has always felt like home to me. Growing up, swimming provided me with a sense of calmness and determination. As an adult, I took pride in leveraging that talent to help people by becoming a beach lifeguard, and joining my town’s after hours volunteer water rescue team. I found a new sense of purpose in this role, where I wanted to strive to make things better and safer for people who shared my same love for the beach, ultimately culminating in me leading my own beach patrol on the Jersey Shore.

Through lifeguarding I found my next passion- distance paddling and surf skiing. Like swimming, it provided me with a sense of calm and serenity on the water, while helping me to stay in shape as I raised a young family. While training started as an enjoyable hobby, I quickly became more engaged in the community, and more competitive in the sport. I began fundraising for major paddle races, supporting causes that I believe in, like Surfer’s Healing and the Dean Randazzo Cancer Foundation. In 2019, my competitive nature reached its pinnacle when tied the NYC SEA Paddle for first overall with my training partner and best friend. Grateful for my ability to still train during the pandemic, I am looking forward to achieving my next milestone in amateur paddling: Molokai 2 Oahu 2023.

When I am not paddling, I am a proud dad to two beautiful girls, Madeline and Lily. I work hard to make them proud and teach them the importance of serving others. In my ‘free time’, I work on the future development strategy for the restaurants that I opened in 2013 with my wife and brother in law.