Author: irwin.cohen

I was born in New York City and lived in Long branch, NJ for my entire childhood and most of my life. I have two brothers that i am really close with, they are like my best friends and i trust them with everything. I also have a younger sister. Growing up i always loved to play sports. Mainly i played baseball and football but also played basketball and tennis. When i was about 15 i had nothing to do in the summer so i decided to learn to surf. From the second i took my first wave i was hooked. Surfing has grown to be a huge part of my life. It defines what i do in my free time, where i travel to, what type of clothing i wear,and how i speak. Without surfing i wouldn’t be who i am today. I also love to ski and take a few trips out west every winter.

Coming into Baruch i really only had one concern. I was very concerned about the work load and thought i would have no free time in my schedule. It turned out that this semester was actually pretty easy and i had tons of free time to do whatever i wanted.

I think college is different from high school in a lot of diiferent ways. First off, all the work and motivation to do well is on you. The professors in college don’t care if you do well and they will fail you fast if you don’t show up to class. Another difference in college is the diversity of people in your classes. In baruch there seems to be people from all ends of the earth packed into that room. Lastly, coming in to college i had to adjust to living on my own in the city rather than being at home with my parents during high school. Overall college has made me more mature and independent.

Coming in to my first semester at Baruch College i expected to be bombarded with work every night and thought i was going to have to work my ass off to do well. Looking back at this first semester, thats not how it was at all. I feel like i have been cruising along; having so much down time and putting effort into my work also. Getting good grades wasn’t even this easy in high school.I realize that i should enjoy this time because in my coming semesters at Baruch College the workload is probably going to get harder.

As far as the campus goes, i am not really the biggest fan. Most of this semester i would go to my classes and immediately leave to go to work when they ended.

College has definitely changed me. It has made more mature and serious about life. In order to be successful you can’t just go out every night and get hammered. There has to be a balance between school, work, and fun.

It was a cold spring morning in April. The swell forecast from the night before predicted 5-7 foot waves and offshore winds, the ingredients for perfect surf in New Jersey. My brother and I pulled up to the beach and immediately saw the corduroy sets lining the horizon. That nervous, excited feeling started to fill my stomach got out of the car to take a closer look. As we stepped onto the sand we realized that the forecast was spot on. The waves looked epic.

We quickly slipped on our thick wetsuits, which were still damp from our session the day before. As I was paddling out I just kept staring through the massive barrels of the breaking waves. A few minutes later I took my first wave of the day. Dropped in, 2 pumps, closeout. Although the wave ended shortly I could feel the power under my board and the potential of the waves for the next few hours. After about four hours we got out of the water because our arm muscles were giving out. My brother took a look back at the lineup and insisted that we go back out and take one more wave because the waves were just so good. So I followed him back in.

The second we got back into the lineup I saw the most perfect wave coming right towards me. I looked at my brother, Abe, and he was too deep. He shouted, “Go! Man! GOOO!” I took two hard paddles and the greatest wave of my life began. I quickly popped up to my feet and looked down the line to assess what the wave was doing. This Thing was massive and super pitchy; just about to barrel perfectly. I had a little too much speed so I rode to the bottom of the wave, did a bottom turn and pulled right up under the lip of the wave. The feelings of the next few seconds are pretty much indescribable. I was inside the wave, in the barrel. The sun was shinning through and there was golden aura of light and water spherically surrounding me. Everything else in the world seemed to fade away and not matter. I felt this crazy high and it was so addicting. Ok, back to consciousness I have to make it out of here. I saw the diagonal lip breaking in front of me and the opening at the end of the wave. I gained a little more speed and came flying out of the barrel back in to the real world. I was just stoked out of my mind and I will never forget that feeling and that wave as long as I live.