Who Are we?
Like most who were bit by the sailing bug, our story is not dissimilar. After 25 years in corporate America and military, Dave was diagnosed with stage IV melanoma cancer. After 2 years of treatments that did not work, we found an experimental treatment at the University of Colorado (amazing by the way) that turned things around. It has now been 3 years since that treatment and things are looking fantastic - it's time to go sailing! (Insert screeching needle across a record here, lol) - in Feb 2022, during a routine cancer scan, Dave was diagnosed (after many more tests) with clogged arteries and needed 2 stents. Okay, now we are ready to go sailing... fingers crossed. And we did. For 13 days. On May 18th, 2022 we lost our dogs and boat to a fire. We lost everything. But like all good Warriors, while we get knocked down we always get up. We put the past behind us and we move forward. And we are now sailing the world (currently somewhere in the South Pacific).
While sailing has been a lifelong dream, we really didn‘t know much about it. Yes, we'd sailed a lot with charter companies. Dave even captained most of them. We'd even owned a tiny boat we practiced with on a lake. Watching us sail that small boat would have been painful for the seasoned sailor and a comedy for all in the beginning - but small boats teach you to sail much better than the big boats do. But things started to change when our daughter was born. We knew we wanted to do life differently. We wanted to make the world her classroom. So we dug in. Consumed everything we could put our hands on that would help us go from a dream to a reality. In the process we learned we owned the outcome. It was up to us to make this real. We needed to be relentless in the pursuit of our goal. We had to be LIFE WARRIORS.
And lastly, and before any salty sailor says otherwise, we recognize a catamaran isn't considered a "true" sailing vessel. That's okay by us. Our gear page would give the salty sailor heart palpitations with all the creature comforts listed there. I can hear them now…"that's too much weight", "that's unnecessary" etc. Our goal is less the sailing (as much as we love that) and more about being together and seeing the world - all while being comfortable and safe along the way.
Where Are We?
What is a "life warrior"?
Through battles of sexual abuse, a brain aneurysm, stage IV cancer, heart surgery and CoVID, and recently losing our dogs and boat to a fire, it became clear that life will get in the way if we let it. Being a LIFE WARRIOR means you own the outcome of your life. Only you will fight for what you want. It won’t get handed to you. The Life Warrior Project and Sailing Life Warriors are all about doing life differently - with people who think the same as we do - life was meant to be lived with adventure, passion and purpose.
Files coming soon.
Get your catamaran sailing certification!
We are excited to announce that in addition to scuba instruction, we now offer sailing certifications. If you are looking to sail the world like us, you need to get certified for insurance purposes as well as your own education. Join us for more than just a class, join us to learn the lifestyle hands on!