The rise of Surf City Cycling Team

I am often asked how did I become apart of Surf City. Well the journey for me began 4 years ago on a Tuesday late afternoon when a guy name Mike Faello somehow got my phone number and reached out to me, funny thing I was out training very hard in the switchbacks and my phone kept ringing. I finally stopped before my next climb to answer it, a guy was on the other end telling me his name and where he was from. I proceeded to tell him I am training let me call you back in a few hours. I called him back listened to his offer and later told him let me get back to you. After doing a little research on him and making sure he was who he said he was and he had a good heart. Everything came back good from the people I spoke to, next I needed to know who would be a part of the team. He told me the list of guys and I was like okay I will take the chance if Kirk Bausch also known as “KB” was in, which he was so I told Mike I am in. Mike told me “I just want to hang out with a bunch of guys and have fun I do not care if we win a race”. Funny that those were his words, so we approached every race as a chance to just have fun and see what happens. Having that approach allowed us to win right out the gate. We had a great seasoned leader at that time by the name of Mark Scott he had over 200 wins in his career and was very calm at all times and shared all of his secrets to success with me and played a huge part in our journey to having fun and winning at the same time.
What has made this team so special and unique is the fact we entered the game from the bottom not a boat load of talent on the team in the beginning, we had a very small budget but Mike made sure we look cool while having very little money. As we moved forward through the years we gained the attention of bigger and better sponsors who wanted to support this group of guys who had a ton of fun and did it with class and respect to our competition. This year we had one of best years to date we were able to win just about every crit we lined up in and the ones we did not win we finished 2nd or 3rd. This run and team has been dear to my heart not because of all the success but because of where we started to where we are now. We have lost some very talented riders through the years but that has not stopped us, this team keeps getting better and better. Some have questioned “Charon how many guys do you guys need”. If a guy wants to race with us and he has a good heart with some talent we are not going to turn him down if we can fit them in. Things change at a moment’s notice. Some guys get injured, family things come up, and some just get burned out and need a break. We have set ourselves up to the point we should be fully covered throughout the year.
From the outside some think this team was built around me and for me…well in some ways it was because at the time it was formed we were not as good as we are now, but I never felt like or told Mike I want guys to work for me or this is my team. Things just naturally took place as I got better along with the team. If some people look back 4yrs ago we were just this small kid on the block that won a race here and there. Now we are this amazing team on paper at the moment. I say paper because we have not done anything yet. But I feel very good about what’s ahead of us for the 2015 season. I love and embrace the challenge of seeing how good we can be, we have a duty to represent our sponsors properly on and off the bike and try to succeed as much as possible in the process.
Hope this give you a little more insight to how Surf City has risen to where we are now, many do not remember us when started on this journey they only see the now. Remember every great journey typically starts with very small beginnings. As you are building on your dream and vision do not be afraid to start at the bottom, matter of fact it is the best way to start because it helps strength you along the way. Once you get closer to the top of the mountain you will be able to fend off pretty much everything because you have been through it all based on where you started. I would like to say thank you so much for following me and our amazing team through this 4yr journey thus far. Remember keep it simple, always bring the fun factor with you, and give a whole lot of respect to everyone along the way. Life is not hard but we can make it hard by not following the simple rules of life. Until the next blog stay blessed. GB