Alec Monaco - Free Surfboard and Wetsuit Essay Contest Winner - 4/3 Men’s Rip Curl Wetsuit and Twinzer Surfboard
It was easy to pick Alec’s story as the big winning essay (both a board and a wetsuit). It contains all the best elements; Selflessness, a sense of purpose, and the potential to help someone in a very direct and profound way. As someone whose life revolves around surfing and the pleasure it provides, I know first hand how surfing can shape someone’s world. Hopefully Alec’s buddy Adam will take this gift and run with it. Check out his winning essay.
Alec, Winner of 4/3 Hotline Wetsuit and Twinzer Surfboard
I read your ad on craigslist, and thought I’d respond; not for me, but to help out a friend.
I’m a Junior at Alhambra High School and I would write you an essay, but I think I can get my point across without using the boring redundancy of essay. Why drag something out into an essay when I can make so much clearer with less, stronger words with actually meaning and feeling behind them?
Surfing is something I’ve dreamed about since i was younger, but never had the chance to actually make those dreams a reality until a couple of years ago when I saved up enough to buy my first board. I started out renting boards, and every time I went out I took someone with me who had never really had the opportunity to surf, so they could feel the same drive that keeps pulling me back to the water.
One of my friends I bring with me more than anyone else. His name is Adam McDonald and he hasn’t had all of the same opportunities that I’ve had. He has pretty much never been out of the Martinez area and I wanted to give him a chance to try something he would probably never get to do. The first time I brought him down to Santa Cruz we surfed at 36th in between pleasure point and the hook. After that, surfing was one of the only things he really had to look forward to.
Adam has always lived in the “ghetto” part of martinez. His small apartment/ condo is right next to a cemetery and a jail, and he pretty much grew up with drug dealers and homeless people. His family’s pretty messed up and he doesn’t really have a whole lot of opportunities except for the fact that he’s enough Native American that the state will pay for his college. But he’s always been a hard working determined guy who deals with the situations and life he was dealt.
Adam on left enjoys his new board and wetsuit. Alec, on right, wrote the winning essay.
His family is pretty open to pot and other drugs so it didn’t really surprise me when he got into them, but he really has no drive anymore. It’s like he tossed that drive out, before he actually had a chance to use it.
Anyway, I used to hang with him all the time but now it seems like he just wants to end up like all the other kids who pass up opportunity. We can’t afford to rent him a board and a suit every time, so we can’t go out very often. We used to go down to Pleasure point every other weekend, and it seems like that’s the only time he actually knows he’s in the right place. Like there is nowhere else we need to be and nothing else we need to do but get in the water.
So like i said, If he could get back out there and find that reason to overcome opportunity with determination, I think he’s got a shot at something a lot of other people in his place would waste.
I just want to help give him a chance.
Alec Monaco
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