A LITTLE
ABOUT US.

Cars were part of my life long before they became my work. I grew up around the car scene, playing Need for Speed: Underground 2, Carbon, Most Wanted, and Gran Turismo, and watching Fast & Furious and Initial D. I was an enthusiast first. That same interest still shapes the cars I own and the work I enjoy.

I started working in the field at 18, right after high school. I left retail for a full-time job at Pep Boys and enrolled at UTI in Long Beach. Work and school happened side by side. I later earned my associate degree in automotive and moved into dealership work.

Mazda was my first stop. My first car was a 2008 Mazdaspeed3, followed by a Mazdaspeed6 and another Speed3. Today, I own an ’88 FC RX-7 and a ’99 FD. I’ve always been a rotary guy, so working at Mazda meant something to me. I became a senior technician within three months and spent two years taking on diagnostics and major mechanical repairs.

During my time at Mazda, I met Shawn, the owner of Eurospeedz. I started helping him almost as soon as we met. He invited me to become his apprentice, and I eventually left Mazda to work alongside him. His mentorship has been a constant through my career. I kept working with him as I moved between roles, apart from the stretch when I held full-time jobs at both Rivian and Volkswagen. We still help each other with jobs regularly, and he’s the one who encouraged me to build this website.

At Tesla, I helped open a new service center from the ground up. The work included battery packs, Plaid drive units, and diagnosing a Cybertruck rear drive unit. New vehicles brought unfamiliar problems, and I learned a lot from working through them.

Rivian came next. I worked nights on customer vehicles and Amazon’s electric delivery fleet, while helping Shawn in the mornings.

My path also took me through Volkswagen and Kia, then Polestar. Along the way, I worked on engines, transmissions, electrical faults, and newer EV systems. At Polestar, I learned VIDA and worked across the 2, 3, and 4, including VCU2 retrofits on the Polestar 3.

Six years in the trade tells only part of the story. A ten-hour shift often led into another six to eight hours helping Shawn, with weekends spent working on cars too. Those extra hours meant more repairs, more problems to work through, and more chances to learn. Waffle Garage brings that experience into something of my own. You can see a selection of repairs and projects on the Our work page, including jobs completed alongside other shops.