The All-Around Recess Champ
Carlos at play in Vermont! His happy place.
Ladies and Gentlemen: I have the fine pleasure here to be introducing you to all-around Recess Extraordinaire - Carlos Perea. Now, I know it’s no longer en-vogue to give out participation awards but personally I think Recess is the one subject where we need to catch up on classroom recognition so here goes. Carlos is our first ever recipient of “Awesome at Recess” award. Well earned and deserved, Carlos. Well earned.
I will back up for just a moment to say that over ten years ago now I went slightly full-in to get to know some of the Fat Cyclist community members that were active in Fatty’s first fundraiser for World Bicycle Relief. Needless to say that the time doing that was well spent and years later we can all look back at hundreds of thousands of dollars raised and friendships for life. Needless to say, I struck the jackpot and Carlos is part of this group. Since the big first fundraiser in 2009, Carlos and I have cycled together in Europe, Sun Valley and Colorado and we’ve done some other cool stuff. But, most of our time as friends has been spent with me admiring his many elements of a playful life from afar including his gravel and MTB riding on the East Coast, his engineering of wood products, the fact that he bought an industrial sticker machine and sends me custom AR stickers and, of course the adventures in the woods of Vermont on his skis and in the back country with his family.
Carlos, you are a Recess badass and you emulate a spirit of play in everyday life that is extraordinary and so joyful. Thanks for sharing it with so many of us.
Here’s more with Carlos:
Describe a little about yourself:
I'm basically the human version of a puppy. I'm high energy, playful, and always making new friends to play with. I'm also an engineer and problem solver. I define myself with how I play.
How does play motivate you in your life?
I live for play time. Every single thing I do, I do with play in mind. When I log on to work in the mornings, I'm thinking about how it's going to fund the next adventure or how I can parlay my next business trip into a ride weekend in an exotic location.
How do you benefit from it?
The biggest thing with play for me is community building. Bikes, Skis, Woodworking... they've all brought me into new and exciting communities where I've developed lifelong friendships. And when I'm down, or tired, I can lean on those people or those activities for a physical or mental pick-me-up!
Our motto is Pursue a Life of Play. In your own words, what does this mean to you? How do you live it?
I've been living that motto for a while now - everything I do, I do with play in mind. It's seeing the "play" in everything you do - diving in head first to a challenge at work, shooting for the best ever gas mileage on a long drive, turning every morning dog walk into a stick hunting excursion.
Well played all around, Carlos. Well played. \\
Can’t help but toss in one of my favorite memories with Carlos and the WBR crew at Rebecca’s Private Idaho. Play stoke (and do-good stoke!) at 100!
