Biography

Name: AnthonyR

Date of Birth: July 2, 1974

Hight: 5′ 7″ or 170 cm

Current Weight: 176 lbs or 79.8 kg

Home Town: Gananoque Ontario Canada

Skiing Rank: CSIA III, CSCF I

Gym: Grizzly Gym

Current Muay Thai Rank: Kru Yai

Current SAW Rank: Sho Dan

Current BJJ Rank: 3 Stripe White Belt

Favorite Food: Delicious Steak

Favorite Animal: Peregrine Falcon

Best Friend: Wife

In The Beginning…

…evolution created me; Anthony. I burst forth from the womb on the 183rd day on the Gregorian calender of 1974. Does that make me a child of the 70′s or 80′s? Anyways… according to the Internets, I share my birthday with Larry David, Saul Rubinek, Lindsay Lohan, and “The Hitman”, Bret Hart. Apparently July 2nd is a fairly remarkable day. Only a select few can say they share something very personal with “The Excellence of Execution”. I’m sure that there are millions of people who were born on July 2nd, but this is about me…

In 1978 my parents separated. Luckily I was only 4 and I don’t have any memories of them being together. Obviously I probably wouldn’t be so fucked in the head if my parents had remained together, but not being able to remember the separation was not that bad. It has always been normal to me. I lived with my mother until I was 8. She did the best job that she could, but we bounced around from place to place. Diagnosed with mental illness, she had a hard time keeping a job to support our little family. Eventually, she agreed that the best thing for us was to live with my father. Occasionally she says she feels guilty for giving away her children. I don’t see it that way at all. I think she made a very responsible decision, and I definitely hold no ill will towards her for it.

Home was a small town in Eastern Ontario: Gananoque – Gateway to the Thousand Islands. Growing up in Gan was awesome. What more could I ask for? The St Lawrence river as my back yard, literally. Our house was right on the shore. In fact, my father still lives there. One day I hope to purchase the house from him. When I was in high school, I spent a lot of time on that river. Fishing, camping, and plenty of partying. My friends and I did it all. I was very lucky. I always had a boat to play in. I was trusted with it at a young age. He would let me take it out to the Parks Canada Islands before I was old enough to drive a car. Rules were much different then. I didn’t need a pleasure craft operator card to legally drive the boat. Now there is studying and testing involved. Seems a shame to me. After years of not having a boat, in 2008 my wife and I decide to purchase one. She had never been in a boat before. Right away she loved it. She actually said to me, “I never realized how fun boating would be!” I knew she would love it. My children love it as well. Hopefully they will be able to experience the St Lawrence the way I did.

After high school I attended Carleton University. I spent a fair amount of time in grades 9-13 not doing homework and studying, so I was limited to certain few post secondary institutions. I hated living in Ottawa. Because of my low marks, I didn’t make it in to residence. Carleton distributed their rooms based on marks. So I got an apartment with a friend from Gananoque, but spent most of the time by myself. I made 0 new friends in the year I was there. After barely passing my first year, I quit. I still feel bad about that.

On October 16, 2004 I entered in to a legal and binding contract. Marriage! Cristina and I met in college. In the beginning, I was hesitant to start the courtship. I thought she was way too young for me. 7 and a half years seemed a lot to me at the time. I couldn’t get past the fact that when I started my first year at University, Cristina was 12… I know, right? But she kept after me and eventually I gave in. Obviously it all worked out. My wife is Portuguese so our wedding was a massive production. Over 300 people in attendance at the blissful event. I’m pretty sure I didn’t know 75% of them. In fact, many people were invited because my in-laws thought that they should be. Thankfully we didn’t have to pay for the whole thing. There was no way we could afford that. We were also buying our first house at the same time.

So the marriage went off without a hitch (no pun intended). The next big question was children. Should we have any? I said no. Although, deep down inside I kind of wanted at least 1. So December 10, 2005, Logan Anthony cascaded in to reality. It was a hard pregnancy for Cristina. She was sick a lot. On the plus side, she didn’t gain much weight. Right away I fell in love. I am sure that every parent says this, but he was the perfect boy.

At 1 day old I noticed that Logan’s scrotum was very swollen and discolored. Turns out that one of his testicles had died from insufficient blood flow and he needed immediate surgery before an infection entered his fragile blood stream. It was hard to see him all hooked up to tubes. He came through it with flying colors and is now a happy and healthy 7-year-old.

Because our lives were not hectic and complicated enough, on August 20, 2008 Cristina gave birth to our second child. Isabella Cristina. Everything went off without a hitch (except for that labor thing), and we now had a million dollar family. Isabella is now a VERY busy 4-year-old in her first year of kindergarten. She and her brother fight constantly. To be expected I suppose… Thankfully there will be no more children in the AnthonyR household. Took care of that shortly after Isabella was born. I’m now like a Starkist orange; all of the juice with none of the seed.

Other then my family, there is only one thing that I really love in this world. It seems weird to love a thing. I probably shouldn’t even compare loving a thing with loving my family. Let me rephrase. There is only one thing in my life that I am so passionate about, that has taken me to the highest points of high, that I think about day after day… Skiing! Dumb right? I don’t know how to explain it. I feel the adrenaline rush and totally at peace at the same time. I feel every part of my body acting individually and becoming one with the terrain. I smile when I’m on boards.

Mountains to Mats is about me. Well actually, it’s mostly about my thoughts and ideas in regards to skiing and martial arts. It’s me trying to be honest with myself as I deal with work and family. It’s me trying to rationalize the way I am physically and mentally… So it’s about me.