Garrett was born in San Diego into a firefighter family. His father is with the San Diego Fire Department and his uncle is a retired Honolulu firefighter. He went to Miramar College after high school with his sights set on the fire service. Little did he know, in order to reach his goal, he would end up in Hawaii working for the Honolulu Fire Department. Poor Garrett, working as a firefighter in paradise!

Garrett has been a firefighter for the last 15 years. He started off as a volunteer at Bostonia and eventually got hired by Honolulu in 1994. Moving to Hawaii brought him many great experiences. Surfing is one of his great passions, and has taken him to all parts of the world... Indonesia, Philippines, Mentawais, Tahiti, the Dominican Republic, and naturally, all over the Hawaiian Islands. Garrett also built a small business importing elaborate furniture and woodcarvings from these same countries. This was his first exposure to the business world.

He also works with his uncle "Doc" designing and making one of a kind heirloom furniture using the exotic Hawaiian hardwood koa, which Doc has been producing and selling to collectors for over 10 years. Occasionally, the two of them still manage to get in a round of golf. Needless to say, the move to Hawaii has been an adventure, and taught Garrett much about people, life, and business.  

In 1999, Garrett started Hawaiian Fire Surf School, which he grew from a $100 per week company into a business complete with a retail surf shop and a staff of more than 30 employees. He not only takes pride in having grown this company, but in the fact that he started a great relationship with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which grants terminally ill children their ultimate wishes. In doing so, Garrett was lucky enough to personally take over 150 of these kids surfing, and his company has helped over 300 families in all! To this day, Garrett feels that these experiences with the children are the single most important life changing experiences he has ever had, and he wants to thank each and every one of those kids for their strength and courage. This has become a major driving force in his life!  

Today, Garrett has since moved on from the day-to-day operations of the surf school and is focused on his next venture, Firefighter Enterprises L.L.C. This is where FIREDAYS was born. Garrett and Firefighter Enterprises L.L.C. promise to keep the same passion and integrity that he brought to the table for his surf school and infuse it into this next venture, FIREDAYS. He also promises to continue to make "giving back" to children in need a priority in all of Firefighter Enterprises L.L.C. business endeavors now, and for as long as he continues to walk this Earth.   

Unlike Garrett, Vance was not born into a family of firefighters. He grew up in Colorado with his parents divorcing while he was very young forcing him into the "man of the family" role at an early age. He is a graduate from the "School of Hard Knocks".

Growing up in Colorado, he had a natural love for the outdoors spending much of his time in the mountains four wheeling, camping, fishing and skiing. It was during this time he began to take note of family friends that seemed to enjoy a different lifestyle. These were great guys that loved life and had the time off (as opposed to the 9-5 crowd) to have fun and appreciate the things life had to offer. They were firefighters. A "note to self" was made.

He graduated high school early and started working in the ski industry. Over this 10 year period, he progressed from cleaning toilets in Colorado and skiing 125 days a year to Product Manager for a National Distribution Company in Sandpoint, ID. overseeing 20 field reps. and 650 accounts. He thought he'd finally reached the "nirvana" of the ski industry with a year round salaried job traveling and skiing the US on the companies nickel.

This came to an abrupt (and unexpected) end when the new owners eliminated his position after one year. Not due to performance, but because he had taught them all they needed to know to run their newly purchased company. This was his first exposure to how Corporate America really worked. Another valuable lesson compliments of the "School of Hard Knocks"!

Crushed, he opted for a break from the ski industry and went to the other extreme, moving to Hawaii. He fell back on his construction background picked up during the summers between ski seasons and did remodeling on the island of Oahu. Between the cost of living and no health insurance, he was forced to take a part time job with benefits doing building maintenance. Here, he crossed paths with the Honolulu Fire Department doing an acceptance test on the alarm system in a new high rise. The "note to self" written some 15 years earlier magically reappeared. Four years and two tests later, he finally got hired by H.F.D. It was worth the effort and he immediately knew that was to be his final career. It was here he and Garrett met in their academy.

Nine years into his twelve year Hawaii adventure, he felt the need to return to the "mainland" for family reasons and started a 3 year campaign to relocate his career, landing in Santa Rosa, CA. He has been there since 2001, starting as a lateral entry firefighter and promoting to Engineer in 2004. He is a union officer, negotiation team member and very active in Local 1401.

His varied job history taught him the value of hard work, its payoffs and the importance of treating people right while building good relationships. He saw Garrett start his surf company and knew that he was just "out of the box" enough to be successful, and he was. They had always talked of being in business together given their common beliefs about successful businesses. Garrett approached Vance about his new venture, Firefighter Enterprises L.L.C. and more specifically, FIREDAYS. They have since combined their individual strengths and talents with the other team members to produce a couple great products and have only just started. He is very excited about the future this company holds and more importantly, the benefits it will bring to their brothers and sisters in the Fire Service across the US. 

Corey Powell is one of the other partners in FIREDAYS. Like Garrett, he too was born and raised in San Diego and grew up in a firefighter family. His dad spent 31 years working for the La Mesa Fire Department and his mom is a retired Registered Nurse from Grossmont Hospital.

Corey loved baseball. He played at Patrick Henry High School in San Diego, then for Grossmont Junior College before being fortunate enough to be drafted by the Montreal Expos in 1990. This began a 12 year minor league career during which time he played for the Montreal Expos, the Houston Astros, and finally the Boston Red Sox at the AAA level. He also spent some time playing in both Taiwan and Mexico. Baseball proved to be a great experience for Corey that allowed him to travel while doing what he loved. This was something many people can only dream of. It's an experience he'll never forget and he had the time of his life.

At the age of 30, he decided to hang up his spikes and pursue his dream of becoming a firefighter. The road to achieve his dream was long. It entailed him going back to school to get the required fire service classes so that he could simply apply for the job, and then taking more classes to become certified as an E.M.T. before working as one to gain the necessary experience so he could enroll into paramedic school. As many people do, he got his foot in the door by becoming a Reserve Firefighter for San Miguel while he worked as a paramedic for Rural/Metro Fire.

Finally, at the age of 35, he achieved his "dream job" getting hired by the San Miguel Fire Department as a firefighter/paramedic where he works today.

Corey comes from a wonderful family that supported him chasing his dreams. He is also very thankful to his wonderful wife, their five year old son and his great group of friends that hung in there while he was pursuing these dreams.

The graphic designer that brought FIREDAYS to life is Bob Tanaka. Bob is a "one stop shop" in the graphic arts world. He acts as an art and creative director as well as being a skilled graphic designer. He has been taking ideas from the concept phase to completion for over 25 years. If you've ever left your house, chances are good you've seen some of Bob's work. He's designed packaging and labels for products such as Orville Redenbacher popcorn, Peter Pan peanut butter, Swiss Miss hot cocoa and Kal Kan pet foods to name a few. He's also done large scale corporate projects for companies like Sears, Kohl's, and Dockers and even designed movie logos for 20th Century Fox and ABC Entertainment. It goes without saying...Bob is extremely gifted!

The owners of FIREDAYS are honored to have a designer with Bob's experience, talent and proficiency and as a part of their team. They view him as an essential component in their ability to produce the quality of products they demand.