Has anyone else on this forum moved away from the beach to take a job and totally regretted it? I lived at the beach for about 5 years, but couldn't find a decent job on the eastern shore in MD or DE. I took a great paying job, but it is 4 hours away......As much as I complained about all the tourist in ocean city during the summer part of me wishes I was still there. I haven't had to deal with missing the surf because there hasn't been any, but when September comes around and the surf picks up I don't know how I will be able to sit in an office, in cubicle with no windows. I never realized how lucky I was to live at the beach until I left......Anyone else feel this way?
Umm... I live 10 minutes from the beach in NJ, but I go to school two hours away from the closest "beach" which is the sound in Connecticut. It sucks a ton, but when I'm home I'm there all the time.
I feel u man. I live steamboat springs colorado during the winter and not surfing really gets to me after a while. I do get to snowboard every day, but still it isnt surfing. Its actually so bad that im gonna surf this standing wave that breaks in this river near where i live next spring when the snow starts to melt and the rivers start to swell up. But anyways, what im trying to say is that you have to find something different, go longboarding down some hills, take up kayaking or something. Something else that can give you at least a little bit of the same rush that surfing give you. If u just sit there and think about surfing its gonna eat away at you. And if your planing on this being you career, and its far from the beach, maybe think twice. Im only in Colorado for 2 years so that i can go where ever the hell i want, and that is probably gonna be santa cruz. Surfing is somthing that once you get hooked, your in for life.
I assume your young. Make as much as you can now, bank it and surf when you can. when you get older you can go where you want when you want. Jobs have perks, 401k, pension and vacation. the longer your there the more vacation and bigger the investment in yourself. Breath deep and look at 5 to 10 years from now, will you be better off? Work hard, save and have fun down the line. Don't be someone who has fun now and wonders what went wrong 20 years ago and ends up chasing a social security check. just my 2 cents!
i feel your pain... Jobs along the Delmarva coast are scarce, depending on what your field is obviously. There is plenty of coastline out there, so while your at your current job, keep an eye on the classifieds, and see if you can find another coastal area that has a job for you. Since, most coastal towns around the Mid Atlantic are pretty far away from the bigger cities, then this limits the corporate jobs available. Here are the areas closer to big cities: Central NJ/Long Island - close to NYC Its only 1 hour to NJ beaches from Philadelphia Southern NC (Wrightsville Beach - Wilmington, NC) Boston area Florida has plenty of options Other than that, get a gas efficient car, so those 4 hour trips don't drain your pay checks!
Yea.. I lived in Texas for 4 years after living at the beach my whole life (Galveston doesn't count as a beach), and I swore I'd never move from the beach again after coming back! Now we need to go to Russia for at least a year and I know I'll be insanely depressed in September. Why aren't women ok with living in a shack in Costa Rica? Just gotta do alot of mind surfing..
Thanks for the replies, its like a complete split decision. Work the job with the good pay and commute when i can or live at the beach and work two jobs just to get by. I am 26, and truthfully I should be looking at the future and were I will be in 5-10 years. But, I just don't know surfing definatley makes me relaxed, stress free and happy....now I can only surf on the weekends.
Good advice that, also suck it up and get as much education as you can it pays off in the long run...
if you really really really love surfing you wouldn't have ever made the decision to be sitting in a cubicle with no windows four hours from the beach during a perfect september swell
I am in the same boat, I have been looking to switch jobs around here for almost a year and have not found anything worth while, so I have just expanded my search to Baltimore and Philadelphia areas, starting some what close to the beach and moving out. I agree with flyfish, also if you are making more money you will have the ability to travel more to get better surf and when you have enough money you can move back to the beach and have to worry about having a good enough job. It is depressing to think about moving away from the beach but it is necessary sometimes to get where you want in life...
dude i go to school in richmond virginia, and being away from the beach is awful. my whole life gets turned upside down. and the girls and not ever a quarter as good compared to the beach, unless your down with the whole pale thing. as soon as i graduate, I'm out. Blitzy's goin west
away from the ocean I moved from San Diego to DC for a job last summer and I cried all the way to the Rockies. Leaving my house that was 3 blocks from the ocean after a perfect May of calm clean spring sets was excruciating. I honestly did not know how I was going to cope and I spent the first four or five weekends driving out to Ocean City and getting in even when the waves were crap-ass. It got easier as time passed though, kind of like a death. I remembered feeling better when I got to the mountains in CO and I started climbing, discovering happily that the DC area has some sick rock faces to offer. Then this winter I took two surf vacations, one back to San Diego and one to Puerto Rico. I deeply miss feeling so immediately connected to the ocean and the sense of balance that connection provided, but at the same time, I love my job, and I have found other things in life to fill the void. To stay at the beach to be an every day surfer, you really have to make some huge sacrifices. In the end for me, I did the math and made my decision to leave. You just gotta do it, man. It doesn't mean you don't love surfing. It just means you don't want to be limited. I get excited every time I thing about the next surf spot I'll discover. If I still lived at the beach, I wouldn't be adventuring out this way. Nicaragua is next on my list. Just rip off the band-aid!
I can totally relate, I am definitely going on a surf trip in the future......and I will be surfing whatever I can this weekend, even if I only get crap waves. Hopefully I can get some on Sunday, but I see the good surf day has shifted to Monday of course..
