Michael was born and raised in Abilene, TX and got into skateboarding as a kid. By the age of 15, he was already doing small jobs to try and earn some extra money. By 19 he was climbing telephone poles to upgrade cable systems before he decided to enroll in college. With the time crunch between working two jobs and attending classes, Michael realized that wasn’t sustainable for him.
At the age of 24, Michael enlisted in the Marine Corps and studied to be a combat engineer. His first station was in Okinawa where he spent four years on the Marine Expeditionary Unity, where he traveled around Southeast Asia building infrastructure.
Michael was deployed to Iraq in 2008 and successfully completed his mission, returning to the states. He was then redeployed to Afghanistan. On December 10, 2012, while on foot patrol, he was sweeping the area for IEDs and came across one too late. The blast sent shrapnel into his legs and lower back and removed a large portion of his left arm. It also perforated his eardrums leaving him mostly deaf as well as giving him a TBI. The damage to his left arm was so severe that a couple weeks after his injury, Michael made the decision to amputate.
During recovery, Michael started getting into a lot of sports as a way to get out of his room. After discharge, he remained in San Diego to stay close to the community down there. He bought a home and opened up a hot rod shop.
2014 was a tough year for Michael as unexpectedly lost close friends and family - including fellow service members to suicide. During that time Michael’s business partner ran his shop into the ground. Michael found himself lost and frozen on the couch. One day, when the voices in his head started getting too loud, he packed up and started driving toward the mountains. He ended up getting connected to an adaptive sports program and started snowboarding. The opportunity presented itself for him to go to the Netherlands where Michael was able to compete and get classified in paralympic snowboarding.
He returned to the states and officially made it on the team. Michael started getting back into good habits and met his now wife Kris. He split time between California and Colorado, finding purpose in training. In 2018, he competed in the World Championships in South Korea, placing 18th in both Slalom and Bordercross. He continued to train and compete in competitions worldwide.
Michael recently returned from Italy where he finished seventh, securing his spot on the Paralympic team for Beijing 2022. Now, he is working hard to prepare and hopes this Hyper program will equip him with the dry land training he needs to best perform on the mountain.
