If you’ve known me for a long time, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know cycling has been one of the things in my life that keeps me focused and balanced. I started racing when I turned 15 at the end of 1979. I was already a multi-sport athlete, so the fitness was there. In my first race I was 3rd, in my second I was 2nd, and in my third I was 1st, sounds funny I know. I moved up categories and started racing with older cyclists here in Miami, there weren’t a lot of cyclists my age around back then. In 1981 I won my first Florida State Sprint Championship on the track. I actually won 3 in a row (1981, 82 & 83). I was even invited to the Olympic Training center to try out for the US Junior World Cycling Team for Track. There were only 2 spots, I didn’t make the team, but I learned early about “politics” and how things work. The guy that made the team; turns out his personal coach was the one making the decisions. Oh well. In 1983 I raced at the National Championships in Los Angeles, it was my first year as a senior division cyclist (18 to 35). Like tennis, it’s about the draw or seeding you get. I unfortunately had to race against the National Champion and eventual 1984 Olympic Champion, Mark Gorski. It was like David vs. Goliath, but this time Goliath won. I was a boy racing against a seasoned professional. Although I had world class coaching, I was lacking the years and maturity it took to be World Class. I was also lacking the steroids(supposed) that the top athletes took too, but that was not even in my nature, I wasn’t a drug taking cyclist, never have, never will. After coming back from LA, I started my first semester of college. I was down and dejected from what happened in LA, but I was still racing, doing very well locally, but it didn’t mean as much.
A week after the photo above, left (BTW, that is one of my best friends Bret Sandoval next to me in the pic), I separated my shoulder in a crash during a race when a cyclist in front of me went down. Bret had to take me to the hospital. That crash changed my life and steered me in other directions other than cycling and my Computer Science in Engineering classes. Photography had always been an interest so I took a photography course while at FIU. One day my cycling coach, Claudio Costa, saw a box of Kodak Paper in my bag, and I showed him some prints I had made in my darkroom class. He said something to me that day in 1984 that again, changed my life. He said,”Carlos, you are a good cyclist, but you will be a great photographer one day.” I thought he was crazy, but eventually I went to the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, where I studied photography full time for 2 years and got my degree. Flash forward 26 years and I’m still shooting. I’ve been all over the world and back with photography, done and seen some really cool things. So when my 45th birthday was approaching back in October, I started feeling those “mid-life” thoughts creep in. Instead of buying a new sports car, I bought a new racing bike, a Parlee Z5, 15.2 lbs of power and stability. Yes, I dabbled in cycling here and there throughout the years, but with traveling and my career, it took a backseat. But now, I have rekindled a lot of cycling friendships through long training rides, almost daily, of 50 miles, and my love for cycling is blooming again. I love the honesty true cyclists have, they are good people. The time on the bike has given me a lot of time to think of my family, career, ideas and what the future holds, plus the fitness to maybe even race again, for fun of course. It has given me lots of analogies between cycling and photography that I will be sharing with many of you soon. One in particular, that it takes many miles and hard work to make it to the top, and constant training to stay there. Building a strong base is very important in cycling, but also in your photography career. So if you are ever in Miami, have your bike and camera, look me up. We will have to put in some hard work, on and off the bike.
) Alice K. Villar, Wedding Planner, Affairs Remembered
Carson loving that pizza
The girls just chatting
Alisons yummy cakes
Alison, Carson, Batman?, and Alek
Carson telling Batman that he likes his party
Cameron waiting his turn.
Halloween Do Over, nothing like Superheros and a train.
Cameron, me & Carson.
Carson could not be happier.
My wife Alison makes one hot Cat Woman.
02/03/2010 at 6:17 pm Permalink
Congrats on being part of a great group of photographers helping raise all that money. That rocks.