About Us
Empfield competed in the first Ironman held on Hawaii's Big Island, in 1981. He designed the original triathlon wetsuit, and founded wetsuit manufacturer Quintana Roo in 1987. In 1989 Empfield debuted another design, the first bike "built from the aerobars back." The first Quintana Roo Superform had 650c wheels front and back, and an 80-degree seat angle.
He sold Quintana Roo to Saucony, Inc., in 1995, and stayed on to run Saucony's bike division - which included Quintana Roo and Merlin - for four years. He left in 1999 and founded Slowtwitch.com.
In 2003 Empfield developed the F.I.S.T. Tri Bike Fit System for triathletes, featuring "stack" and "reach," a set of bike fit metrics popular among tri bike manufacturers and fitters. He's given fit clinics and workshops all over the United States and Europe. He continues to write for, and publish, Slowtwitch.com.
Empfield still swims, bikes, runs and races several times a year. He lives with wife Tanya, dogs, and horses on 8 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California.
While working full time at WYBE-TV 35 in Philadelphia as an editor, Krabel raced Mountain Bikes in the Pro category from 1991 through 1996. In 1997 he accepted a position as the Director of Marketing for Litespeed Titanium, the company he had raced for professionally. After the acquisition of the brands Quintana Roo and Merlin in 1999, the company became the American Bicycle Group and Krabel took over world wide marketing for all the brands.
In the spring of 2007 Krabel left the American Bicycle Group to start his non traditional marketing firm called Guerrilla Communication. That summer he also accepted the Editor in Chief position for Slowtwitch.com. He currently holds both these positions.
Krabel's athletic experiences include various Ironman finishes, the 24 Hours of Canaan in West Virginia, Wilderness 101 and Punxsutawney 50 in Pennsylvania and the Iditabike in Alaska. He lives with his wife Amy Hildreth and Silvie the feisty cat in Winston-Salem, NC.
As CTO, Jordan is in charge of wrangling the multi-headed hydra of a website that is Slowtwitch.com. Despite being a somewhat Sisyphean ordeal, he nevertheless does his best to make sure Slowtwitch walks and talks the way it is supposed to. If you like Slowtwitch, feel free to let him know. If you don't, please tell Dan instead. Armed with his trusty Mac Powerbook, he tries to stay one step ahead of his ever growing “To Do” list.
More than a bit of a technophile, Jordan does many of the product reviews for the site. Nothing makes him happier than cardboard boxes, with the possible exception of water bottles, goggles, and compression socks, so this is the opiate that offsets the occasionally overwhelming job of coding the site.
Jordan also co-instructs the F.I.S.T. bike fit workshops with Dan, where they help people find enlightenment aboard a bicycle. In addition to F.I.S.T.ing people, you can regularly find him around Xantusia where his favorite activity is climbing the mountain to Wrightwood, which is just about the only time Dan lets him away from his laptop.
In an eclectic post graduate period, he taught expository writing and worked as a freelance writer and photographer during which he covered a wide range of events including the Super Bowl, the Democratic and Republican conventions, a coal miner's strike in West Virginia, the Daytona 500, NBA finals and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. In his most exciting assignment, he served as a co-driver for the Polish Racing Drivers of America Ford Econoline van in the original Cannonball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash race from New York to Redondo Beach, California. With a makeshift 120-gallon fuel tank, no one smoked and the first gas stop was in Missouri.
Finally gaining regular employment, he worked as a staff writer at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner for 10 years, during which he wrote for the Style, Sports, News, Magazine and editorial sections. During one feature assignment, he rode as passenger at Riverside raceway in an off road truck which flipped end over end. In another assignment to cover a murder in south central LA, he was abducted and held overnight by a crack addict. At the Herald's demise, he went to work for the LA Bureau of TV Guide magazine. During that four year stint, he wrapped up a 10-year career racing off road motorcycles (which included one spectacular crash which required he be airlifted from Erendira to Scripps Hospital in San Diego)co-riding to a 5th place finish in the Open Motorcycle division in the 1992 Baja 1000.
Also during this period, Carlson took up running and triathlon. On a freelance assignment for the LA Times covering the 1993 Hawaiian Ironman, Dan Empfield lent the newbie a bike to ride on the Queen K and thus he was forever hooked on the magnificent sport.
From 1994 to 1999, Carlson wrote and took pictures for various multisport magazines including Triathlete, Competitor, Multisport and Winning. From 1999 to July 2008, he moved to Boulder and served as editor and then senior correspondent for Inside Triathlon. Since then, he happily signed on with the Slowtwitch crew.
Sick and tired of watching others compete in the annual St. Olaf College triathlon, he lost 35-lbs in the summer before his senior year while training for Grandma's Marathon and ran cross country for St. Olaf the following fall. Later that spring, he completed the swim leg of the college's triathlon and started as the right-fielder and helped the Oles secure their conference championship later that afternoon.
After completing a few local triathlons back home in Iowa that summer, Finanger raced Ironman Wisconsin on his Trek Cyclocross bike and helped St. Olaf secure the Collegiate Championship title at the race. The next fall, while coaching JV soccer at his alma mater, he worked for famed Minneapolis tri-store Gear West, purchased an arsenal of tri equipment, and put his History and Asian Studies majors aside to accept an offer to teach as an intern at the International School of Brussels in Belgium.
Living in central Europe allowed Finanger to compete on legendary courses like Nice and attend training camps at Club La Santa in Lanzarote, Canary Islands and Zofingen, Switzerland.
He moved to Boulder, CO in 2004 and began work in the advertising department at Inside Triathlon magazine in large thanks to a recommendation from long-time Senior Editor, Timothy Carlson - whom he met while trekking up Volcan Villarica outside of Pucon, Chile. Finanger graduated to advertising director and associate publisher of the magazine until last May.
Finanger currently works as the Sales Director for Retul 3D motion capture bike fitting and facilitates the ad sales with Slowtwitch.com along with the occassional interview.
Finanger lives in Boulder with his wife, Emily, and two retriever dogs, Thor and Izzy.
Monty began his multisport career in the early 70's as a lifeguard working the beaches of Los Angeles County. His forte was the "Lifeguard Ironman" which included swimming, running, paddling, rowing, and kayaking. In 1978 he began training for his first triathlon and won his first 3 races. Since then Mark has over 60 multisport wins in over 400 races during a 15 year pro career as a triathlete and bike racer.
Montgomvery has also worked "behind the camera" in triathlon, as promoter and race director of over 50 races, including the Los Angeles Triathlon Series (ongoing since 1982). He founded the Triaction Sports triathlon shop in the late 80's, which at the time was the shop to the stars and headquarters for the latest in new technology. He worked closely with Dan Empfield in designing the tri-specific bike and wetsuit.
Montgomery went back to work for the L.A. County Fire Department in 1994 as a full time lifeguard retiring in 2003. He had a pacemaker installed in 2001, and after 18 months of recovery got himself back in shape and qualified for the U.S. Worlds team in the 45+ age group. He competed on the U.S. team in both New Zealand and Portugal (World Championship sites for 2003 and 2004).
