College surfing

I went to University of Rhode Island, and rented a house on the beach in east matunuk it was a great experience plenty of different wave options point breaks and beach breaks I miss that place, i'm sure the waves are better at the west coast schools though

 

....and there you have it.

 

Im sure it's been said already, but any of the California UC system or CSU schools are great if you want to surf as much as possible and get a decent education.

 

If you don't mind me asking Yank... What caused you burn out? I understand that I'm just a dumb kid (26 with the mentality of a 20 year old), but living bi-coastally large and flying private sounds like the cat pajamas to me.

 

Yeah, I think the last few threads that came up were strange, in the fact that each person had a VERY specific major/career path chosen at age 17. So they name a couple places, I.E. Hawaii or Rutgers and wanted specific advice on that. So, I think if you are going to Law School or Med School or what have you, sure, surfing should be last on your list of reasons why to go to school... Agreed.

But I don't think there is anything wrong with "What college is a good surf school" for a LOT or people. I would say 85% of people, if given the choice between going to Frostburg in Maryland, or Salisbury in Maryland. For the most part, the education is the same, the names don't matter. One if close to the ocean, the other isn't.

If I got was looking at UC Riverside, or UC SD or UC SB? I would PUSH super hard for one of the coastal choices... I think, in most cases, there are plenty of good schools right by the ocean. Enough to apply to them MOSTLY because of that.

You have to remember. Everyone's life and goals are different. Not everyone is looking to go to college, get their degree and then have the opportunity to move away to the beach for ever. For a LOT OF PEOPLE, their college years can be the only time they every truly get away where they are from for any extended amount of time. All the guys from NY and NJ that I went to college with all moved back to Jersey and NY after school to start careers. I was the only one that went away to the ocean. Everyone else just went back to their lives. A lot of the key jobs in this country are in Chicago, NY, Boston etc... If your diploma was that important to you all through college, your career path with most likely going to take the front seat.

If you didn't let surfing influence your school choices, you PROBABLY won't let surfing influence your career choices either. Those 4 years MAY be your only shot at it for the rest of your life. And if that happens, how are you going to feel looking back on it? You going to have a midlife crisis, quit your job at 45, move to Hawaii and learn to surf then? At that point, ya missed the boat.

 

Your mind may change again. But there is nothing wrong with that feeling. Cause like I said before, only you know yourself, and you family and how your future will work out. If you think that your strong roots back east will eventually draw you back east, then now may be your chance to get out and see the part of the country/world that you want to. Dive into it. Live the lifestyle. Work hard in school. Work hard in the surf. After 4 years, you may be convinced that you can never go back to the way of life you had before. Or, you may travel back "home" and continue on with life...

The schools you mentioned are GOOD schools. Spent a lot of time at UC SD myself. I can't think of a more ideal setup for a college campus, except maybe Point Loma Nazarene, but you DONT want to go there.

Good luck man. If you want to start every morning out by walking to the edge of campus, hopping in the water and taking a surf, then probably do the same after or between your classes, then you know what to do. Talk about the Yin and the Yang. You could have it all my dude...

Life is filled with hard work, but First take care of your head. You can accomplish MUCH more when you have stoke in your daily life. Period. A 10 day vacation will NEVER replace the feeling of being stoked, surfing and living by the beach. Those vacations will NEVER make up for those 3 miserable, cold, grey months in a frozen tundra. And when you return from that short trip, and enter back into the grinds of life, regardless of how much money you make, you will only be looking at your watch each day, and your calendar each day, waiting for that next "trip". To me, that is like living in a prison. Those trips are nice, but to have waves at your disposal every day is something of true value that most people will never have.

P.S. WTF? "Back in my Day", GPA's maxed out at 4.0, period. And to ACE the SAT, you had to hit 1600.... I can't even keep up with these kids nowadays. Were too many feelings getting hurt? That we had to increase the grade levels? A 4.0 A+ isn't enough, we had to let people get more than 100%???? WTF is more than 100% of something? Crazy, uber smart kids broke the scales.

 

24/7 trading. As in I'd roll right around the globe with the market. In the office, such as it was (a huge house on the PCH - - MPM bought it from Stallone, my office literally looked out over the Pacific in the 'Bu just up the road from Paradise Cove if you know that area at all) by 4am west coast time.

Here's the link from GoogleEarth where my office was. 'Fly' over that puppy & see what you think....
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.025...ata=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sqP1OiDaH44ZCXFTxsFUe6g!2e0

The house with the reddish roof:
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.0244309,-118.7756687,194m/data=!3m1!1e3

So, yah, 4am LA time: check the overnight action out of Frankfurt & London, if my brokers hadn't already woke me up 6 times during the night on my dedicated line to alert me to gold & currency fluctuations; then trade, hard & fast, all day on COMEX & CBOT & other USA markets.

Brief break in the afternoon, then Sydney opened up for precious metals primarily. Then on to Singapore, over to Zurich & Frankfurt, through London & back to NYC. That was the way we traded.

My specialty was currencies (this was pre-Euro): DMK, YEN, CHF, FFR & everyting else, too. Kovner used to love to trade spreads with the Kroner & Riyals & anything & everything. Man's a genius (obviously). But, anyways, I was MPM's second-incommand & we traded everything that was then in existence in the futures markets from bellies & OJ & plywood & stock derivatives to platinum, gold, silver & the USD. We routinely ran huge positions. If you were one of our 4 world-wide brokers.....you were wealthy from the commissions. No Etrade in those days. Best night? Made $250k inside of 20 mins trading YEN. This was the late 80's so it was a good chunk of change. Worst night? Lost $75k trading gold. Dated SoCal's finest tuna, met lots of famous people, crazy stunning women, insane famous people, sports stars (Gretzky, Kurri, McSorley & the Oilers all came to the house one night to party).
Yah.....I got stories....

Anyways, I was your age 26-27, living in a gilded cage, doing nothing but trading my arse off / aka working. Making a lot of money. Sometimes losing a lot of money, too.

My raison d'etre, though, was trading money for people with money for the sole purpose to make more money. You know the deal: "you're only as good as your last trade." After awhile that stuff gets really old. Not building anything, not creating anything - - and the pursuit of mammon strictly for the sake of more makes for very ugly people.

I was really good, which is why I rose fast. But, there weren't many people over 40 trading like we traded; I'd had enough of the scene & the people in trading. I left on my terms.

Glad I did it, 'cause I understand what really runs this shiiite-show we call a democracy; and glad I'm out.

 

^ This. Nothing wrong with wanting to surf and get an education. In '99 as an average student, I had 2 instate choices close to VB that had education programs... CNU or ODU. I chose the one closer to the beach (besides teachers are are dime a dozen anyway, so no one cares what school you went to). If your career path choices pan out in a similar fashion, then why not let surfing be the deciding factor? You're gonna be eating ramen and drinking 40's so... 44 miles to surf v 22 miles to surf...one saves you time and gas money over the other while making it more likely to actually get out and surf (I know VB is a bad example but you get the point).

Chances are surfing is already a deciding influence in your life anyway. You are young and the priority of surf in your life may change (I'd argue it WILL change judging by the number of surfers I grew up with that switched to golf, horseshoes, and beer for freetime fun after college). Check the responses above and the "what do you do" & "how far inland" threads to see all the different levels of priority just in this forum. Anyways.... now's the time to figure that out.... it only gets harder as you get older and acquire more and more obligations. The "pay now or pay later" regarding lost water time or lost wages analogy is true but consider the context of what is most valuable to your lifestyle.

 

Agreed with SinSmithfield: just go & do, and always give your best effort (sounds like you do), and things will be ok; sometimes, oft-times, most of the time, it will be a lot better than ok.

The old saying applies: 'Keep your powder dry & your pecker hard, and things will turn, son, things will turn.'

 

yankee I feels like we could have a few snifters of JW and trade the same different stories. I may be down to AI next swell to do so.

 

Picking a college was and always will be a hard choice for anyone. You have a lot of options with your scores and GPA.

I'm origonally from PA and driving to jersey to surf was about an hour and half. I also had in mind that I wanted to choose a school where I could surf. Ultimatly I decided on Hofstra and surfed just about every day. Its on Long Island, about 20 minutes from Long Beach. I would have class M-F 10am to 11am and then from 3pm to 430pm. In between that time, i was surfing. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I would intern. I've since graduated and now I work as an analyst at a major bank. What it really comes down to is time managment. Whether your surfing, going to class, or interning, you have to find time to manage everything.

Having said that, Hofstra was a good time. Looking back on it, it was def an exspensive school and there are def better schools out there. It has a decent reputation. Try to gain an idea as to what it is you want to do four or five years from now. College is all about the name now and thats it.

Just remember, the waves will always be crashing.

 

I went to the college of charleston for the same reason...don't know why UNCW wasn't on my list because the surf there is more consistant. To a certain extent, any college is what you make of it.

Santa barbara is overated as far as surfing. Yeah, they have world class point breaks, but those really only fire consistently in winter...SB is in a bay blocked by the channel islands, so there's a extraordinary amount of flat spells. And then there's the crowds world class spots get. You'll also need a 4/3 year 'round. There are some consistent isolated spots just north, but it's very exposed, so the surf gets junky and sharky.

Malibu crowds are the worst - they're the thickest and least respectful I've ever seen. At least in SB, you might get a leftover or two, but you won't even get that in malibu - not even a longboard will help you here. If you get lucky enough to catch even one leftover, there will be 10 groms on the inside blatantly dropping in on you. The only plus is, just north of Malibu, there are a bunch of isolated reef breaks (spots the mags call "North LA"). You'll need a 3/4 year 'round.

 

Yeah, but a lot of the school year, most of it, will have decent swell, and if I was in SB, I would drive 30 minutes west up around the point there and you are exposed to EVERYTHING. Gets down right scary up there sometimes.

But the amount of surf in SB is still leaps and bounds more than anywhere on the east coast. And man, Santa Barbara is freaking beautiful. on an insane level. SB was one of the only other places in CA that I have been that I would live in HAPPILY aside from San Diego. SB, palm trees on the beach, the mountains behind you, filled with wine country. The weather. Man, Santa Barbara is a really magical place. I had SOOOO much fun up there when I would go. Water is chilly, but I have always scored spending a few days up there. The wine up in Napa is better, but I would rather spend a week in Santa Barbara than anywhere in CA besides SD. Santa Barbara isnt the surf mecca of the west coast, but it's all about the yin and the yang. In Santa Barbara, maybe he would have more time to study. It's easy not to surf when there are no waves. The addiction becomes unbearable when you live in a place exposed to waves 365. I would never forgive myself for a day of not surfing. Not once would a day go by, where it "wasn't big enough" or whatever. The few times I wouldnt surf, I would always regret it. I can't imagine not find an hour out of every day in La Jolla not to surf though. It would be harder not to than to.

 

Damn Yank, never thought I'd run across someone with that resume on a wave predictin surf forum. Read the market wizard books decades ago and thought working with one of those guys would be the schit. Good on ya for pulling in that green room and making it out unscathed.

 

see most people think surfing keeps u healthy,but really its not.its just like the gym guys,u can bench press 600lbs but if ur diet is off u wont get anywhere.I know a lot of pretty good surfers,older guys not kids,and they are all fat.like they look good shape until they take their shirt off,and these are guys that got 30+ years surfing under their belt.maybe not fat but beer belly wise,they all have that.surfing to try to stay in shape is just stooped.u can do any sport and itll set the foundation for staying in shape,but its training and u have to commit hard to it.

back to the college surfing,I don't see any need to go to school just to be able to surf,either your incredibly rich or incredibly stupid(no disrespect).if ur incredibly rich and ur parents are paying for it and u don't care about your future career move then go for it.u can surf anywhere in the world.if u want to stay in shape go to a gym and swim laps in the pool everyday,that will get u in shape.

its like this for me.im a certified stoner.if someone told me hey I can get u in a college in Amsterdam,I would go there and not smoke anything.I grew up poor,live poor,so I try to achieve the max with anything I do.if I can go study for 4 years and live another 40 yrs rich and prosporous and be able to take a surf trip whenever I want.my co worker whos costa rican,his nephew is a pro surfer down there sponsored by billabong.I went with him a few times but unable to go the last 2 years because I didn't have my priorities straight and didn't have the money and its basically just by a plane ticket,guy has a nice house down there right on the beach.so I couldn't afford a 400$ ticket so I sit here and talk shyt on this forum.

if u like cali so much,do ur schooling then move down there permanently.I have dreams of moving out there but in my current situation,I wouldn't leave my job and wing it down there.that's what ur doing if u don't have family or friends and no money,its basically impossible.u move out there with dreams of surfing good waves and that's it and don't think about the cost of living,housing,food,etc.plus cali is so overated.yes it has good waves,but a dude from the eastcoast shows up and trys to take waves,ur gonna have a problem,unless u go to ucsd or one of those colleges where the peaks packed with 600 out of state surfers.then its ok.I know people who went out to cali on big swells and couldn't wait to get back to jersey to surf decent uncrowded waves.

 

Wow Yankee... Honestly, at this point in my life, that sounds exactly like what I'm into. Its a shame your out of the game, I'd love to be your protégé. That 24/7 thing had to be exhausting though. I stick with Nasdaq stocks (bigger bid ask spreads) and trade from just after open till close and call it day. I mostly scalp (very high frequency), and pretty much all my profits comes from finding a stock with a large bid ask spread, and buying at the bid and selling at ask (or vice-versa). I'm usually not trading very high quantity (I tend to trade stocks with prices higher than 200>, because my I pay commission based on shares), so these types of orders actually get filled at a surprisingly high rate.

Anyways, I know I'm full of questions, but how did you get your foot in the door at trading companies? My goal right now is to just maintain a good trading history, and then show them what I'm capable of (there is a program inside my platform that keeps track of your trades and displays it with nice graphs and such). It could just be beginners luck, but since I stared doing this a year ago I'm well over 100% in the green. Basically, do you have any advice to landing a job trading (other peoples money) for a living, or am I on the right track?

 

Good choice. Zach is right; it's pretty darn sweet up here if you don't mind a wettie year-round. Go to UCSB, get a degree in Electrical Engineering and stand out a little bit. You'll be spoiled for choice of jobs within spitting distance of year-round great surf. RF and optics are huge and will be huge for the forseeable future, and there's scads of big wealthy businesses up here that are doing well and hiring. STEM is nice because you don't have to bust your hump 24/7 just to make scratch or keep up with the young blood. It's a good field for "work/life balance"

Study hard and don't let surfing get in the way of making good grades and getting a job. Also, keep it on the DL that you're a surfer both before and after you get hired. If they know, everybody will assume, the instant that they can't find you, that you're out surfing. Which is only true about 95% of the time.

It might not elsewhere, but the "real world" rocks up here. You can put in 8-9 hours of work, then surf 6 hours a day or more plus all day long Sat/Sun if that floats your boat. Even if you want to go the family way, a day will hardly go by that you can't snag at least an hour or two of quality water time.

When you're young, you can spend a week visiting the fam at Xmas and then spend your other 2 weeks of vaca in Baja, Costa, Indo, *a**a*, Tahiti, or wherever. Or bank your pto (CA law) and take a few months off to really go feral. CA is the US gateway to the Pacific and Indian oceans; where the real waves are.

Other schools? UCLA, Stanford, UC Berkley and surf on the weekends.

 

Yep, the world needs a lot of Financiers. Think of all the good that the bankers and traders have done in the last decade.

Keep jumping through hoops son. After you've jumped through 'em for a couple decades, you can relax and surf, when your spine is curved and your d*ck is limp, after you've wrecked the careers of untold thousands with your subtle manipulations of imaginary capital.

Ah, yes, you also might become terminally ill, have an accident, or a dormant hereditary condition. Have fun enjoying your retirement then! One thing is for sure, you're aiming to become something the world needs less of.

Seems like you have a brain. Perhaps you could use it for something besides money hoarding and business administration.

“Man... he sacrifices his health in order to make money.
 Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health.
 And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present;
 the result being that he does not live in the present or the future;
 he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.” - Dalia Lama number 14

 

Rgr that, and gracias, GMagoo. Yep, MPM was featured in the original 'Market Wizards' book. He, Kovner & Paul Tudor Jones remain the only three people I've ever met, let alone worked with, who I would rate as 'genius' in the grey matter department. The atmosphere was dynamic, intensity defined & it was relentless.