Kyle Roach:  

Life I'm glad there's over 20k charters available, because I still love to write. So I'm getting to it... After High School I bopped around between Mira Costa and Palomar, and then got kicked-out of Palomar, for not reporting in to the Dean like I was supposed to. I worked at a couple of record stores in the area because of my love for music. I'd learned how to grind an axe (play guitar) by then and was jamming with some REAL musicians by then. I didn't want to live the life of a musician, struggling and starving. I just want to join G n R but they weren't hiring! LOL! I joined the Merchant Marine at 23 and got to sail to the Mediterranean Ocean and see a lot of the coast of Europe and a couple of those spots on the north coast of Africa. I spent a lot of money and had a lot of fun. Then I went to work in the oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Then I got a job working the offshore fields off of California. I was working my way closer to home. I went to Alaska for a few months to work on the Exxon Valdez clean-up and that was incredible. Alaska is beautiful country. The seas are everything you see on Deadliest Catch though. Pretty rough water, but I'd become pretty "salty" by then, and was truly a "drunken sailor". I landed a job working the tug boats in San Diego harbor, which is about the best job a mariner could ever hope for. I screwed that one up because I was living in Ocean Beach and partying too hard. And I got kicked out of the Merchant Marine for it too. What a bummer! I was using my talents from H.S. Autoshop and working on motorcycles for my friends, as well as doing a pretty sweet job on a 1968 Triumph Bonneville. So when my career in the Merchant Marine ended abruptly, I cooled my heels in jail for awhile, detoxed from the booze and the party favors, and decided to go to Motorcycle Mechanics Institute in Phoenix. I became a Factory Certified Harley-Davidson Technician. I got sober a year later, after I'd gotten into a LOT more trouble and was looking at some serious prison time. Hangin' with hardcore bikers will change a person for life, so I don't suggest rollin' with patch-packers and gun slingers. So getting sober (feb. 5, 1995) saved my life and my freedom. I don't go to meetings anymore, don't thump the AA Big Book, and I still go to bars regularly to shoot pool and hang with the bro's. I've tried a couple career changes over the last couple of years, and nothing has worked-out quite right. I sold my house March 2008, took the money and now I'm enjoying the life I have today. I'm also working on getting my Merchant Mariners document re-instated so I can get back to my true love. The Ocean! I've missed it everyday since I've been gone. The travel and the adventure and the lifestyle. This time though, I'm going to use my mechanical talents and get a job in the Engine Dept. where it's warm and dry. Being up on deck is a young mans sport, and I've already been there. As you can see from the profile pic, I still love a good adrenaline rush, and I'm currently a student Skydiver and working toward my solo jump certificate. It's a rush and a half! Even if you just do it once, do it! And unless you've got an un-natural threshold for fear and terror, go tandem with the instructor strapped to your back. I went with the jumpmasters on each side of me and all the responsibility of the jump, but then again, I'm a madman! Eventually I'd like to get into 'winged suit' jumping and maybe even go to where they base jump off cliffs and fly canyons, but I've got a long way to go before I reach that level of experience. July 2008 update Apparently, I'm not getting my sailing papers back and I'm strangely OK with that. I just got back from New Zealand a couple weeks ago and found My Blue Heaven. It's everything I've been wishing California still was... the people are wonderful, the air is clean (and always will be), the geography is incre...Expand for more