Sand Key Park in West Florida gets really fun in the winter-time, and early mornings can be a blast after a big windy cold front. Often, after the winds blow from the northwest for a while, it changes direction, and begins to blow from the northeast. When it blows from the northeast the wind blows right into the curl of the waves. The northeast wind helps the curl maintain its shape while it breaks, it helps it stay hollow. These are the days at Sand Key when your most likely to find a make-able barrel, it’s a good time to get tubed.
Raymond has lived in the Tampa area since birth, a true Floridian, and has no plans of leaving. He started his career in the hospitality/service industry, eventually working at private golf courses, including Heritage Springs Country Club, East Lake Woodlands Country Club, and Cypress Run Golf Club. Returning to school full time at age 25 he quickly earned an Associate in Arts with a focus in psychology from Saint Petersburg College, and also earned the prestigious Outstanding Psychology Student award in 2012. Not long after, he received his Bachelor in Arts in psychology from the University of South Florida in 2014. For his psychology department honors thesis at USF he wrote a qualitative data driven paper on how reasoning and decision making intermingle. In this project he and his faculty mentor went as far as to create a unique categorization system for the various types of reasoning by the respondents. One of his faculty mentors in a letter of recommendation described Raymond as, “…among the best I’ve mentored in my 32 years of teaching experience primarily at the university level.” Raymond recently added coursework in leadership and organizational management and the health sciences to his resume. He is also pursuing his dreams as the owner and editor of the beach oriented publication, www.SurfingtheGulf.com. He has been the site photographer, videographer, writer, editor, publisher, salesman, and owner since its inception in 2014. He’s worked with local leaders to try to promote surfing, fishing, skimboarding and other beach activites. He hopes to leave a legacy as someone who cares about this place, and the people who live here.
