Navajo Youth Advocate Jon Yazzie Joins Titan Straps Ambassador Team
Welcome to the Ambassador Team, Jon Yazzie!
Bikepacker, School Administrator, Navy Vet, Guide, Youth Advocate
Click here to read our profile Q&A with Jon Yazzie!
Jon is a prolific bikepacker, bikepacking route developer and founder of the Navajo Youth Bikepacking Program. His extensive background in cycling runs the gamut. But his 24-hour races in the single-speed category earned him notoriety in the cycling community.
Jon still races at least twice per year, despite working full time for the Navajo Nation and running his guide service, Dzil Ta’ah Adventures. He and partner, Nadine Johnson, co-founded Dzil Ta'ah to support their youth program.
Moreover, Jon Yazzie is passionate about getting more kids on bicycles and into the Navajolands.
The Team
Jon joins a diverse group of athletes–container home builder Steve “Doom” Fassbinder, bike adventurer Liz Sampey and hunter Nick Trehearne. We selected this team for their passion for empowering others, their pioneering efforts in human-powered adventures or for their unique work in construction.
“In short, we decided to invite Jon to the team because we were impressed with his athletic accomplishments and vision of empowering kids through bicycle adventures on the Navajo Nation,” CEO and founder Cameron Lawson explains. “Plus, our company has deep roots in the world of bike adventures, and Jon is a true OG cyclist.”
Read More
Jon’s cousins first put him on a bicycle at age 4 or 5. They pushed him down hills on homemade contraptions, some without tires. He was hooked, and proceeded to ride bikes for the rest of his life. Read about his bicycle journey on the Titan Straps blog. And learn more about how his Youth Bikepacking Program empowers kids on The Radavist (stay tuned, to be published soon).
Born From Adventure, Made for the Trades
From adventure, to construction, to everyday life, Titan Straps changed the way people thought about ski straps.
In 2010, Cameron Lawson developed some prototype polyurethane straps like the standard skinny ski straps of old, but stronger, wider and more refined. He needed something more durable and safer for a 300-mile bike-packrafting mission on Alaska’s Lost Coast. His straps worked exceptionally well at securing his equipment to his packraft in choppy ocean swells and on his bike as he peddled across sandy beaches covered in baseball-sized cobbles. And the ease and quickness at which he could tighten, adjust and remove gear was unparalleled. Cameron realized he had struck gold.
Simple and highly effective, these utility straps had far-reaching applications. He started producing them en masse, giving them to adventurers, but also contractors, plumbers and electricians to field-test. People immediately wanted more. And Titan Straps was born. Learn more on the Titan Straps website, or follow us on Instagram @titanstraps.
