You may have heard the term "McTwist" twenty or thirty times during the recent Winter Olympics snowboarding half-pipe competition. Well that was possible because of the determination of one skateboarder's dream.

As an early pioneer of vertical skateboarding, Mike was the first to pull off the 540º, a move now commonly known by skateboarders, snowboarders and surfers alike as the "McTwist". Mike invented this move while teaching at a Swedish summer camp in 1984, which most people say opened up a whole new dimension in skateboarding. The trick was name by one of his former teammates Rodney Mullen the “McTwist”, which is a 540-degree aerial grabbing mute style.

Growing up in New York and then moving to Florida at the age of 10 he started skateboarding in the Tampa Bay area. There were at least 5 concrete skate parks within hours driving distance to his parent’s house. Not able to get to a skate park everyday, Mike built all kinds of ramps and obstacles to satisfy his growing need to skate as well as constantly searching for concrete drainage ditches and backyard swimming pools, which sometimes turned out to be better than most of the Florida skate parks built at that time.

After competing in several contests around Florida, people began to take notice of the 85lb 14 year old kid. More specific a skater named Alan “Ollie” Gelfand, inventor of the ollie air (no hands aerial) from Hollywood, Florida, and Tim Scroggs one of the top flatland freestylers from Orlando, Florida. They recommended Mike to their coach Stacy Peralta, leader of their team known as the Bones Brigade, residing in Venice, California, where some say skateboarding started. After making several trips to California, Stacy told Mike as long as he placed well in contests he would keep flying him out west to join his other teammates to enjoy the smoothest parks in the world.

During that time Stacy picked up other riders like Steve Caballero, Rodney Mullen, Tony Hawk and Lance Mountain to join his elite team. They traveled all over the world, through out Europe, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand as well as all over the United States and Canada doing demonstrations and competing in contests. In fact they traveled so much together, it was like Mike’s second family.

Mike stunt-doubled for actor Christian Slater in the Movie "Gleaming the Cube" and has also appeared in "Polce Academy 4", "Thrashin'" and "California Cowboys", as well as numerous skateboard videos and television commercials. Mike has also owned a skateshop in Encinitas, CA for over 15 years, which he uses as a tool to help design shoes, skateboards and apparrel for todays skateboarding market. Mike resides in San Diego, California with his wife and son. He actively competes in Masters Competitions, and will occasionally barge in on a session with his long time friends and teammates Tony Hawk and Kevin Staab.