Monica Moody
Published: September 14, 2005
“I’ve spent most of my life surfing, the rest I’ve wasted.” -Unknown.
The PJC Surf Club is out to increase membership and spread the love. Along with the start of a new semester here at PJC comes a new fresh-faced freshman crowd.
“We want any and all freshman. We want them to come and get involved, whether they’re interested in learning or they simply love to surf,” said student founder Kersten White.
She and faculty advisor, Dr. Charlie Schuler, founded the club in January, 2005. Both are natives of the area and have been practicing the soulful art of wave-riding for years. Their goal is to create a network of students at PJC who share a common love not only for surfing, but also for our beaches and the surrounding environment.
“We’re trying to put together a beach clean up to help knock-out some of our required volunteer community service minutes,” White said.
This effort is especially important to the community with the recent storms that have impacted the gulf coastline. Other projects include initiating active involvement with Reading Across America, whose purpose is to help provide children with the motivation to read and creating lifelong successful readers.
A trip to surfing hot spot Cocoa Beach, which originally had been planned for this past summer but was postponed because of Hurricane Dennis, has been rescheduled for this fall.
“The larger the group the better, because then more people could pool their funds together to help ease the impact of recent gas price hikes that students have been hit with,” White said. “We want to encourage participation with beach days, canoeing trips- really any water oriented activities. I want to explore water safety and water etiquette, both important topics when it comes to surfing. I can also help with CPR certification if any one is interested in that.”
The first meeting for the new semester will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 23, building 4, room 447. Meetings are always casual and open to all students, and usually include refreshments and a surf video on the massive big screen.