Birthday student ditches class for surfing

Matt Conley was driving south on Route 1 -- heading from Warwick to the University of Rhode Island -- about 8:30 a.m. It was his 22nd birthday, but the senior Communications Studies major had a homework assignment to finish before his 11 a.m. class and he also wanted to get a jump on some reading.

Just before he got to the intersection of Route 1 and Route 138, he paused behind the wheel of his pickup truck. Almost without thinking, he said later, he veered out of the right-turn lane and drove straight down Route 1.

"I got to where I could go to class or not," he said. "And I just said, 'screw it, I'm going surfing.' "

The water temperature was about 45 degrees, Conley said, and the air was almost 70 degrees, so he could not resist. He picked up his surfboard and full-body wetsuit at his uncle's house in Narragansett and quickly made his way to Narragansett Town Beach.

The waves Wednesday were fun to ride, but only two-to-three feet high and not very strong. He surfed on his nine-foot longboard for several hours, until about noon and then met some friends on the beach and relaxed for another hour.

Afterward, Conley came to campus - remembering that he had skipped our interview - and left a note in my mailbox about his day.

He later had cake and ice cream with his family and then went out to dinner with Venessa Deluca, his girlfriend, he said.

The instructor of the class he skipped, "Managing Cultural Differences in Organizations," only allows two absences, Conley said, and this was his third.

"I've got to catch up in class now, but some days," he said, "I just have to go surfing."