Who is Brett Holt?
Last updated: May 2004, though the rest of the website is current!
I was born in San Jose, California on August 17, 1974. I am thrilled to have been born in the seventies so that I didn't miss the eighties. As I grow older, I am
discovering how many people missed the wonderful opportunities of the eighties. To name a few, there was the introduction of the miniature G.I. Joe action figures, Atari, A-Team, The Muppet Movie(1979, close enough), V, Transformers, Pac Man, Donkey Kong, Bon Jovi, Dukes of Hazzard, Wrestlemania 1, Poison, The Karate Kid, Ghostbusters, and Goonies. There is something about my childhood and having all of those things a part of it that I truly love.
I was born and raised in the metropolitan city of San Jose, CA. It was a lot smaller than it is now. I believe the population is 900,000 and growing. I have two brothers, Mike and Mark, who are both older, and a set of parents who are divorced. Mom is in San Jose and Dad is in Oklahoma. For the most part I had a typical childhood. I spent most of my waking moments outside. My friends and I would play war games, football, baseball, wrestling, spotlight and with G.I. Joe's, bicycles, skateboards, chemistry sets and anything else that would occupy our innocent minds. Mike and I would race BMX bikes in Gilroy, CA on Friday nights. That was a blast. I had a 3-story fort in my backyard that I was always playing in. Some years later, a neighbor called the City of San Jose Building Inspector. I was informed that unless I had a building permit for the structure then I would have to tear it down or else be fined. I tore it down and eventually built a dog run in the area.
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I have enjoyed school throughout my life. My favorite years were in college, followed by elementary, high school, and middle school. College allowed me to develop into who I am today. Elementary was the best of our innocence. High School had some great opportunities to try new things out. Middle School was just awkward and I found no pleasure in those two years.
I received a A.S. in Park Management from West Valley College. It was an excellent program where I learned a bit about our natural environment and a lot about myself. I transferred to San Jose State University and earned a B.A. in Environmental Studies. This is where I was first exposed to the Peace Corps.
I was raised Baptist and attended First Baptist Church of San Jose for many years. Just about every Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday evening were spent at the church. I would take part in the plays and musicals each holiday. When I entered high school I began to play drums for the youth music band. Having the drums in the church caused quite a bit commotion. Some thought it was great to have the drums while others felt they were Satan's tools. I had some people tell me that the beats I was playing were very un-Christian. I ignored them and kept on playing each Sunday.
I have always been a physically active person. Up until high school I was continuously playing three sports. My Dad was the founder of a
Christian sports league called Christian Athletic Association (CAA). The three sports offered were basketball, baseball, and soccer. I did all of them from ages 5 to 14. Once I entered high school I kept playing soccer but found my new love, wrestling. I
wrestled throughout high school and the first two years of college. I did pretty well in wrestling. My senior year I took 1st
in league, 3rd in the Central Coast Section, and qualified for the state championships. My second year of college I was
wrestling freestyle and qualified for nationals by taking 2nd in greco and 3rd in freestyle in California. By this time
I was pretty burnt out on wrestling so I chose not to go. This was the end of my organized sports career.
Then I found out about some great athletic and spiritual opportunities in rock climbing, backpacking, mountaineering and life hasn't been them
same. I first went backpacking with my brother Mike in 1994 at Henry Coe State Park. I got the worst case of diarrhea and told myself that I wouldn’t go backpacking again. A year later my good friend Jay asked me to go backpacking with him at Point Reyes National Seashore. I'm not sure why I went but I did. It stormed on us quite a bit but
we had a great time. Since then I have been backpacking numerous times in all weather conditions. My most enjoyable time to go is in
the winter. The winter offers some spectacular views, especially after a fresh snowfall, and a lot less people to see while in the
backcountry.
Recommended Films
Syriana, Dead Poet's Society, Bowling for Columbine, Braveheart, Christmas Vacation, When Harry Met Sally, A Christmas Story, Star
Wars movies, A River Runs Through It, Whale Rider, Undercover Brother, Ladies Man, Singles, Crash, Spelling Bee, Finding Forrester, Indiana Jones trilogy, and Goonies.
I started to play the drums when I was fourteen. The agreement with my mother was that I was allowed to take drum lessons as long as I didn't join "one of those rock bands out there." I accepted her deal and, well, 6 bands later I'm glad I didn't actually abide by our agreement. I've had the best time playing in music bands. Playing with other musicians live on-stage is the heart of being a musician. I am very happy that my entire family has had the opportunity to see me perform.
Honorable Mentions
- I ran the Los Angeles marathon in 1994 with my Uncle Ken and his friends. I took about 4 hours to complete the 26 miles and 385 yards.
- I met Ozzy Osbourne in 1995 at one of his concerts. He was quite deaf.
- Poison was my favorite band in middle school.
- I had a newspaper route with my friend Jenni when I was in middle school.
- I worked on the Yosemite National Park Search and Rescue team in 1996.
- It took me 7.5 years to get through college. It was well worth it.
- It wasn't until 1995 that I took any serious interest in protecting the environment.
- I attended the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles with my family.
- Every Halloween, from 2nd grade through 8th grade, I was an army guy.
- Rancid was the first punk band that introduced me to the punk scene.
- I enlisted into the Marine Corps during my senior year of high school. Before entering boot camp, I received a medical discharge, due to shoulder surgery, and chose to never reenlist.
- I've had three surgeries on my left shoulder in 1992, 1993, and 1997.
- Outside the United States, I have visited Mexico, England, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, France, Greece, Turkey and Armenia.
Over the years I have played with a variety of rock and punk bands. In high school I would scramble for whoever could play guitar and was
available to play the upcoming weekend. Over the years I found some great musicians to play with and we made some fun, catchy music. My
most recent band was Boy Kicks Girl. We were together from August 1996 until September 2000. You know, when you start out in a punk band you don't really think about the CDs, merchandise, flyers, etc., you just want to play. That is exactly how we started out. It was a year or so later that we were caught up in the business side of the music industry. Our first show
was at a party to a crowd of seven. Since that first show we grew in popularity and our biggest show was with Blink 182 in Union Square in
front of 4,000. We toured the U.S. and had a great time. My brother Mark was huge help with the band. He not only helped with
our website and touring, but he helped with pressing and recording our CD and getting us a van for our tours. His help allowed us to do
things we never could do on our own. We played almost 300 shows and made some great friends along the way. But as with all great things
in life, they must come to an end.
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So when the band came to an end, it was time for me to seek out my life in wildland fire fighting. I had fought fire in Prineville, Oregon in 1998 and loved every bit of it. A chance to fight fire in Florida that summer definitely got me hooked. I sought after that experience once more and found it when I was hired to work in Burns, Oregon in May 2001. The fire seasons of 2001 and 2002 were great years. While in Burns I had the opportunity to fight fire in Oregon, California, New Mexico, and Colorado. I worked on the helitack, hand crew, and engines. I took a detail with the Vale Hotshots for two
months and saw some of the best fire behavior of my life. In October 2002 Laura and I moved to Mineral, California where I took a job with theLassen Volcanic National Park fire crew. I was the Assistant Fire Engine Operator (AFEO)on a Type III Interagency Fire Engine. During my time in Lassen I had the opportunity to fight fire in Hawaii and throughout California. I worked with some excellent fire fighters, just like in Burns and Prineville, and learned a great deal of knowledge.
So where does my beautiful wife Laura in fit into all of this? That was on the main page.
Closing Thoughts
Life is an enjoyable experience that, I believe, should not be spent in self-pity, ignorance and destruction. If you are not happy with something then change it. If you are ignorant in life then seek knowledge because knowledge is power. Remember to leave this place better then when you found it.
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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived"
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden
"One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast...a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the west; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the Grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breath deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for awhile and
contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk bound men with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: YOU WILL OUTLIVE THE BASTARDS."
-Edward Abbey
"Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes, and dingoes - by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions so he can eat them. This in turn kills man by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative-fatal-health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other humans are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because the food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at
the absurdity of man, who kills so easily violently, and once a year sends out cards praying for, "Peace On Earth."
- Author Unknown (taken from the Bigwig album Stay Alseep)