Tech Exec Switches Gears

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For Will Carter there is nothing much like the mind-clearing effect of a good bike ride.

“I started racing mountain bikes in college and have continued to have it as a pretty big part of my life,” said the 36-year-old chief technology officer of Los Feliz app developer Ad Hoc Labs. “I really enjoy getting out and being able to clear my head.”

Carter said he bikes two or three times during the workweek, sometimes at nearby Griffith Park. On the weekends, he aims for longer rides of around 25 miles, often in Angeles National Forest.

“The amount of fire roads and single-track trails in the Angeles National Forest, there are just so many great rides,” he said. “I like the solitary part of it. I like going out by myself and suffering on the way to the top.”

Carter said he got his start cycling while growing up in Utah, and though he doesn’t compete as much as he did in the past he still enjoys participating in events.

“I still do race events a little, usually three or four times a year,” he said. “There’s a race that I do called the Whiskey 50 (in Arizona). It’s 50 miles.”

And while carcentric Los Angeles might not seem like the best place for mountain biking enthusiasts, Carter said he has found a growing number of compatriots, especially those who gather at Silver Lake’s Golden Saddle Cyclery.

“There is a really cool bike community in L.A.,” he said. “The L.A. biking community really has developed and flourished in the last two or three years.”

Delayed Verdict

Ryan Sacks, president and director of operations at Beverly Hills Chairs, mistakenly thought the third time would be a charm when practicing law.

Sacks said his grandfather, Hymie, briefly practiced law in South Africa – even attending law school with Nelson Mandela – but quit over frustration with the country’s apartheid laws. And his father, Victor, went on to practice law only to stop.

“My father just hated practicing law,” Sacks said.

When Sacks decided to attend law school his father quickly cautioned him.

“He said to me, ‘Why are you going into law? I went into law and quit; your grandfather went into law and quit,’” he recalled. “I told him, ‘Third time’s a charm.’ But he knew better.”

Sacks said after practicing personal injury law at a firm in West Los Angeles he ultimately realized it wasn’t for him and left after two years.

“My father said – and it’s even funnier in his South African accent – ‘I knew it. I knew it. I told you,’” said Sacks, laughing.

Staff reporters Garrett Reim and Subrina Hudson contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Jonathan Diamond. He can be reached at [email protected].

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