Who here has worked lately?

I do steel work.10hrs a day Monday thru Friday,and 6 hrs on Saturday.if I wanted to I could work more hours but I do not want to lol.now is the season where its dark when I go to work and dark when I leave work so surfing before or after isn't an option.if the waves are good I will take the day off.not for no mediocre waves tho,i have the weekend for that.

fall is great tho,plenty of time before it gets dark.not anymore

 

Biochemist. I did carpentry work during the day and went to college at night. It was hard earned success. I surf on the weekends and can sometimes take off when the surf is going to be good.

 

Did you buy Tow and Go 5 years ago when it was for sale for like 250,000?

 

I lucked into a pretty suite job a little over 6 years ago. It only pays half as much as when I had my own business doing garage doors, which I ended after I got this job, because I didn’t have enough time to do both.

I’m a rep for a hockey equipment company. I get to travel all around to different NHL cities during the year. I get off almost entirely from some point between mid-April and mid-May, and until the second or third week of September. I have to work for about 10 days in July and that’s it. So that’s how I work surfing into my schedule, I barely surf at all during these months. Maybe once or twice a month, sometimes 3-4 times in a good month. I work 60-80 hours a week and have one day off in the months that I work, which is sometimes spent traveling to another city or on a plane. Sometimes I get two days off. I have a few days off next week for Christmas, though. So I barely work at all for 4-5 months between April and September, but it’s 60-80 hour weeks the rest of the time. That’s one of the reasons I keep trying to figure out why I spend my Summers in Jersey, when I can go anywhere I want for those months. A few of my closets friends do the same type of work, which is how I lucked into this job after 20+ years of being an overhead door mechanic.

I’m 46 and I’d be fine with doing this job until I’m in my 70’s.

 

Good because if owned that company I would increase the profit by 300%

Offer chair rentals, surfboard rentals, coolers, umbrellas, anything. Maybe, daily ice delivery along with grocerys.

Zippy you have a freaking huge marketplace that your customers are begging you to offer them.

 

Full time through Oct 31, 2018...my retirement date. After 38 years working for the Navy, it will be time to move on.

 

work as a biologist for DoD...I have a flex schedule - as long as I get 80 hours every two weeks and get my work done, my boss doesn't care how I do it (within reason). If it's decent - depending on the time of year, I either come in late or leave around lunch and make the time up later.

 

Will you be completely retiring from working after this? Or another venture?

These kinds of jobs sound pretty nice, but I'm happy with what I do now. Flexible hours are pretty cool though!

This is a pretty cool thread. I was already interested in what you other guys do for a living. Some of you seem like you never work, with how much you're out in the water!

 

eatswell, I had always wondered what you were doing that gave you such a weird work schedule - now i know

 

Second time I post this--my first one someone deleted it. That is the second time this happens to me. Admin--are you or anybody else deleting my posts; if not-they are disappearing.

Now to the subject matter: I am retired. The only work I do anymore is the "honey dew list" ("Can you move the house a little to the left?"). But I do like trading stocks to earn travel and fun money--keeps me connected to the world, and, it is the reason you morons all have the pleasure of my postings whilst I await stocks traded to go up a bit.

However, my past work experience: 35 years in pharma as "medical science liaison". Also had 2 years as lab tech working on experiments for the former Atomic Energy Commision using Cobalt-60 on lab mice. All of that AFTER a brief period as a State Trooper right out of grad-college.

 

I wish I had been doing this for 20 years before, but I did overhead doors for over 20 years, right out of high school, until I was 40.

There are a few downsides to this job. Not a lot of sleep this time of year, I feel like I'm always sleep deprived. I also don't have much time to do stuff around the house. I was able to change my oil a couple weekends ago. When I go out of town, I have to have my neighbors get my mail and hold it for a few days or sometimes a week. Sometimes my nephews are here on the weekends and do it. One of my best friend's is my roommate, but he also works with me and we're both out of town at the same time. It was easier my first couple years, when I had a live-in girlfriend, who would go food shopping, collect my mail, etc. Not to mention struggling mightily to find times to surf.

 

Congrats Dosxx!!! Enjoy it, you earned it!

 

25 years of teaching and coaching. It's a different animal here in North Carolina than back north. I make about half what a teacher makes in a small district in NY.
I have to drive the bus as a coach. I received my last coaching check today. 20 years of coaching men's and women's cross country with numerous conference, county, regional and one state championship. My pay for the ENTIRE season $1235... This is after TWENTY years! First practice August 1st. The better your team is the longer the season... We finished up at state championships November 4th.
I coached tennis in 1993 in western NY. I made $1500. Never had to drive the bus and had 0 coaching experience. Season was 6 weeks long.

I'll make $1826 as head coach in my 23rd year of track this year.

Didn't want to make this a bitch session, but I thought some of you northern teacher/coaches might like to see the disparity.
Retiring to become a beach bum in 5 months and 19 days... But whose counting?

 

environmental health and safety manager for a company in the steel coating industry. i travel all around the south east US almost every week. we have locations in pretty remote areas so i don't get to surf as much as i did. its hard to catch waves when you are in mississippi, tennessee, etc.

on the up side i have so many hilton honors points and american airlines miles that i can go almost anywhere i want for free.

traveling gets old tho. kinda wish i was just a cook at waffle house sometimes.

 

You have any good Bio stock picks for 2018?

 

I'm in public education, so I have an early start, early end workday... 6:30ish - 3ish most days. That gives me afternoons and weekends to surf, plus vacation (and sick days, if warranted). Except for the shortest days of the year, or days where I have meetings after work, I pretty much don't miss a swell.

 

VP of Operations for an environmental consulting company in the NY/NJ metro area.

I work either from home (65%) or in the field (35%). I make my own schedule. If I see a bump coming I try to work around it, especially for dawn patrol. Afternoons are tough since that's when most of the BS happens regarding scheduling/logistics for the next day.

Couple winters ago we had a job in Far Rockaway. that was cool scored it a few times after work before the ride home to Jerz.

 

I work in contracting for the Government, VA specifically. My office, my house, my daughter's day care, and my favorite surf spot are all within a 3 miles of each other. Scheduling is less flexible here than other Government offices I've worked at, but still more flexible than a lot of places and the lack of a commute means I can surf any day of the year basically. Sometimes only for 30-40 minutes, but still better than no surf.

Essentially, I just have to work 80 hours per two week pay period, which can be 8 hours a day (plus an unpaid half hour for lunch, choice of hours within reason, but needs to be formally documented and adhered to... can't just come in whenever I feel like and leave 8.5 hours later), or 9 hours a day with one day off every two weeks. When I lived in CO (worked for DoD at that time), I chose the 9 hours + day off to maximize skiing time, but 8 hours works better here because it guarantees some non-work daylight year round.

Before my daughter was in daycare I worked 8:30-5, which was ideal for dawn patrols. Now things are a little different and my schedule is 7:30-4. Daycare is right around the corner from my office, so I drop my daughter off there around 7:15 every day. If there's no waves I pick her up on my way home at 4, if there are waves I surf after work (even this time of year I can get about 30 minutes in the water) and then pick her up after that... day care closes at 6 so in the fall/summer I can get at least an hour in the water. In summer/fall, if my wife doesn't have to work late (which she usually doesn't), she handles daycare pick up and I surf until dark or when I get bored.

If waves are best on lunch, I can usually take an extra hour at lunch and make it up at the end of the day, from home in the evening, or if I know it's coming, proactively from home in the morning. This has to be negotiated with my boss and documented on a case by case basis, which is a pain in the ass so I don't do it too often (and if he's in a bad mood that day, it's unwise to even bring it up). I can also almost always use an hour or two of leave at any point in the day if that's my best option to surf, assuming I don't have any critical meetings or deadlines that conflict.

All told, I really can't believe how awesome my current setup is. Granted when I'm freezing my nuts off surfing waist high waves in february and only paddled out because it had been dead flat for two weeks before, I sometimes wonder why the hell I'm living here if surfing is so important to me, but for the most part I'm pretty stoked with how the chips have fallen. Three years ago I was living 1000+ miles from an ocean, hadn't surfed in over a year, and hadn't surfed anything better than knee high chop in well over two years. Now I can get out literally every day there are waves without neglecting my daughter or pissing off my wife and boss, all while earning a very comfortable living at a job I don't hate. There's certainly an element of good luck involved, but I can't truthfully say I don't know how I ended up here... ever since I took a work trip to san diego in early 2015 and realized how much I missed surfing and living by the ocean, I have stubbornly and methodically based nearly every decision I've made on whether it will result in more or less water time (as long as the pro-surfing option doesn't negatively impact the health or safety of myself and my family). While I hope to advance my career further over the next 20-25 years, I would turn down basically any raise or promotion offered to me today, regardless of salary increase, if it meant spending any less time in the water (within reason of course... yeah i'd work 100 hours weeks for the next couple years if it meant I could retire fully in 2 years and do nothing but surf... but if you offered me a $50k raise but the additional workload meant no surfing on weekdays all winter, I'd turn it down without a second thought).

 

I’m an Tenor... I sing opera. Opera companies usually don’t start rehearsals until 10. So I can get dawn patrols in. Also if I’m not called or they are not rehearsing something with me in it I don’t have to go in. I’m not paid by the hour. I’m paid by performance so I have to watch when and how much I surf leading up to it because your body needs to be in perfect condition to perform and the expected level. If I get sick or I don’t perform I don’t get paid. Sometimes I’ll have no rehearsals for a month but 5 concerts so I’m not rehearsing and have tons of free time. I fish, shape boards, study etc during those gap periods. Right now I’m rehearsing for 3 separate operas at the same time as well as doing concerts and auditions so my time is very limited for surf. I have 10 days off from rehearsal at the moment. But July and August I have completely free at the moment. So I might go on a big surf trip with the lady. She teaches at two universities so she always has summers off. It’s a crazy way to live bevause you never know where you’re going to be working, how long, etc... anticipating a lot of upcoming time in Europe which I’m not stoked on...

 

Serious? You sing Opera?