Biography
Like many little boys (here’s a picture of me and my oldest son), I fell in love with cycling from the moment I first tried it. There is something about the freedom of riding a bicycle that is just so amazing. As a child I spent entire summers riding my bike from sun up till supper, and often back out again for a few hours before bed.
It started with a BMX bike, like most north american kids. Building jumps and racing friends down to the end of the block. Soon I discovered mountain biking, and my friends and I were eventually sneaking onto ski areas to bomb down jeep tracks long before suspension forks, let alone full suspension and lift assited riding was around.
Mountain bike racing was a passion of mine through high school and University. My Idols were Ned Overend, Tinker Juarez and John Tomac. My road biking knowledge was ‘limited’ to say the least. I finally picked up a used road bike, for the purposes of off season training (at this point -off season meant more than 12 inches of snow on the Bragg Creek Trails). I tried racing a time trial with a local masters group, but it was a fairly sour group who had no patience for a kid my age who didn’t know the ropes. So I stuck with the mountain bike racing.
It started with a BMX bike, like most north american kids. Building jumps and racing friends down to the end of the block. Soon I discovered mountain biking, and my friends and I were eventually sneaking onto ski areas to bomb down jeep tracks long before suspension forks, let alone full suspension and lift assited riding was around.
Mountain bike racing was a passion of mine through high school and University. My Idols were Ned Overend, Tinker Juarez and John Tomac. My road biking knowledge was ‘limited’ to say the least. I finally picked up a used road bike, for the purposes of off season training (at this point -off season meant more than 12 inches of snow on the Bragg Creek Trails). I tried racing a time trial with a local masters group, but it was a fairly sour group who had no patience for a kid my age who didn’t know the ropes. So I stuck with the mountain bike racing.
Cycling gives way to music...
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Eventually my competitive cycling “career” gave way to my other big passion in life, music. For eight years I sang and played bass in a punk rock band called downway. Once finished university the band really started to take off and I found that we were spending more and more time on the road, which was making it harder and harder to train. Eventually we were spending 5-6 months of the year out of town and I had to give up my racing. In the end I am happy that I chose that route as you can only be twenty-something once, and I feel I made the most of it. We even dusted off the guitars for a reunion show earlier this year, which was a total blast. Talk about feeling 21 again!! If you have a thing for mid-90′s style punk rock, we still have a website and play from time to time.
http://www.myspace.com/downway
http://www.myspace.com/downway
Back to Work...
For years I led a strange kind of double life, physio for half the year, punk-rocker the other half. But when the music career eventually finished I found myself with a fresh new passion for my work. I obtain certificates in both acupuncture and spinal manipulation and began a period of intensive self directed study. I found the challenge of working with complex cases very rewarding, and that became my area of clinical interest. During my university days neurology was my specialty and I became interested in how to apply some of the concepts used in the rehabilitation of brain and spinal cord injuries, to rehabing sports injuries and orthopedic conditions. I started to have success with patients who had been deemed ‘unfixable’, which ingnited my competitive streak. Now I find that by bringing this passion to my work everyday I get incredible satisfaction in what I do. I feel very lucky to have found a job that I care so much about and enjoy on such a personal level.
Bringing it all together
In the summer of 2009 I registered in the ride to conquer cancer. I’m not sure what made me do it. It certainly wasn’t the kind of thing I had ever done before, perhaps that was the appeal. My first son was about a year old, work was crazy busy and from a fitness point of view I was about as unfit as I had ever been. I dusted off the old red road bike and joined a local masters cycling club. I laughed at the subtle irony of now being a sour old masters cyclist and promised myself that I would not yell at any young aspiring roadies if they were illegally drafting me in a club time trial.
At the begining of the season the club hosted a fun race. It had a great format, timetrial-TTT-Road Race all in one morning, so I got a taste of everything. I came home talking a million miles an hour, I had rediscovered the joy of competition and I was hooked big time. Soon followed a dark period of intense e-bay usage and I emerged with a serious Frankenbike which I could be seen carting from race to race. 2011 was an exciting year as both Speed Theory Calgary and Focus Bicycles stepped up to support both the website and my racing habit.
The highlights of the year included a second place in the Canada Day Crit, which bumped me into Cat 3 where I managed to take the bronze medal in the provincial road race.
As my participation grew I started meeting more and more racers, and eventually started treating more and more cyclists. It was a watershed moment for me, I realized that by combining these two passions my life could be enriched beyond my expectations. That’s what led me to create this website. I find nothing more enjoyable than treating cyclists at work. I still treat complex cases and chronic problems, but when treating a cyclist or triathete I am really in my zone. My vision is that 20 years from now I’ll be seen as the old cranky physio that everyone knows can get them back up and running before the next race, all the while regailing my patients on how it used to be back in the days of the ‘punk-rock cycling physio’!
-dave
At the begining of the season the club hosted a fun race. It had a great format, timetrial-TTT-Road Race all in one morning, so I got a taste of everything. I came home talking a million miles an hour, I had rediscovered the joy of competition and I was hooked big time. Soon followed a dark period of intense e-bay usage and I emerged with a serious Frankenbike which I could be seen carting from race to race. 2011 was an exciting year as both Speed Theory Calgary and Focus Bicycles stepped up to support both the website and my racing habit.
The highlights of the year included a second place in the Canada Day Crit, which bumped me into Cat 3 where I managed to take the bronze medal in the provincial road race.
As my participation grew I started meeting more and more racers, and eventually started treating more and more cyclists. It was a watershed moment for me, I realized that by combining these two passions my life could be enriched beyond my expectations. That’s what led me to create this website. I find nothing more enjoyable than treating cyclists at work. I still treat complex cases and chronic problems, but when treating a cyclist or triathete I am really in my zone. My vision is that 20 years from now I’ll be seen as the old cranky physio that everyone knows can get them back up and running before the next race, all the while regailing my patients on how it used to be back in the days of the ‘punk-rock cycling physio’!
-dave