Left to right: marine research specialist Brian Caccioppoli ’11, M.S. ’15; Kiran Reed ’20; dive safety officer Alexandra Moen ’15; associate professor of kinesiology Emily Clapham ’02, M.S. ’04; assistant professor of ocean engineering Brennan Phillips ’04, Ph.D. ’16; Laird French ’21; Jake Fagan ’22. In front, Alexandra Moen’s dog, Arrow.
By Marybeth Reilly-McGreen
URI students, staff, and faculty are drawn to the ocean to feel its power, channel its beauty and healing qualities, and experience the incomparable thrill of catching a wave.
It was a cloudy September day in 2015, sometime in the midafternoon. The water was warm, somewhere between 60 and 70 degrees. Details like these don’t matter to surfer Christina Young ’21. She was on her board in the water. And, so, the day was perfect.
Young had paddled out to take her place in a lineup of strangers—locals, mostly—in the surf at Narragansett Beach, waiting for the perfect wave to break. When it did, she found herself beneath rather than atop the wave, and that was just fine, too. In that moment, Young was with her ocean, her “deepest love.”
And so it goes with every wave and every ride. Each recalls every other experience on the ocean for Young. Memories drift in and out of her consciousness. “Some are recent, and some are a part of the past. These go from great, breaking waves to simply small swells that naturally hug the shore every other minute.”
Sometimes it’s hard to tell where memory ends and metaphor begins with Young. But her manner of speaking always reflects a reverence for the ocean, and for surfing. “Surfing is a gift. It is a privilege that requires a deep passion for the ocean and that is earned through respect, confidence, concentration, and patience,” Young says.
This is the surfer’s mindset.
Courtesy of Jake Fagan ’22.
Painting on the Waves
If sports were ranked for coolness, surfing would be the one to beat. Barefoot bests bowling shoes. There are no golfer’s tan lines in surfing, no helicopter parents hollering. You are the bat connecting. And the ball flying. You’ve got that sand-in-the-hair, salt-brined-skin, scraped-elbows-and-knees, waterlogged, all-out, all-encompassing, all-heart wellspring of kid passion going on way past adolescence. You’re amped by others’ successes. You’re chill and upbeat even when wiping out. Because, for a surfer, the worst day on the water is still a great day.
“Surfing’s just really relaxing, and it depends on your style of surfing, but if you are, like, a really flowy, relaxed surfer, it’s more of an art form than it is a sport. It’s like you’re making a painting on the waves, drawing new lines.”
–Jake Fagan ’22
This mindset is spurring URI student surfers to explore courses of study that incorporate their love of the ocean—and they’re coming up with super-chill big ideas for the future.
Jake Fagan ’22 has been surfing since the age of 10 and boogie-boarding since he could walk. “Did you know URI is one of the top ten surfing schools in the country?” Fagan says. “It’s part of the reason why I’m at URI.”
Another reason: biomedical engineering. Fagan wants to design prosthetic limbs. He was inspired by a fellow surfer from his hometown, Little Compton, RI, who lost his leg in a shark attack. “So after hearing that whole story, well, I wouldn’t want people to not be able to do their favorite things in life,” Fagan says. “If people played a sport, I want them to still be able to play a sport. If they would surf, I want them to still be able to surf. So, for people who suffer from unfortunate things, I want to prolong and increase the good in people’s lives through prosthetics.”
Fagan takes every chance he can to get on the water. “As long as it’s not, like, below 30 degrees, I’ll try to go out,” he says. “My mind just completely clears. I’m only focused on having fun with my friends, catching waves, trying to better myself. Everything feels so smooth. I’m on a big body high. I even like having that film of water on me when I’m done.
“Surfing’s just really relaxing, and it depends on your style of surfing, but if you are, like, a really flowy, relaxed surfer, it’s more of an art form than it is a sport,” Fagan says. “It’s like you’re making a painting on the waves, drawing new lines.”
Is There Anything Better Than Surfing?
Kiran Reed ’20, a marine biology major, sits back, thinks on it, grins. “Diving,” she says. “I’m better at diving. If I got better at surfing, though, I’d probably choose surfing, because I think it’s one of the things that when you experience it, once you’re really good at it, there’s this kind of flow to it.
“With surfing, you feel refueled rather than exhausted when you’re done.”
“Being on the water, it’s an interesting mix of feelings. You’re insignificant and in awe of an awesome thing, a thing that’s a lot larger and more powerful than you, but at the same time, you kind of feel like you have your place.”
–Kiran Reed ’20
Reed grew up in a small farming community in Stow, Massachusetts. While Fagan was spending his summers surfing the waters off Aquidneck Island, Reed was tending to sheep and goats, learning to milk. “I always had this appreciation for the ocean. I realized I was happiest when I was outside,” she says. “And the ocean was a frontier I’d never explored.”
Reed’s long-term plan is to earn a master’s in marine biology from California State University Northridge and to pursue a Ph.D. She would like to do research and teach.
“I like researching the kinds of fish that are important to people. I am also really interested in working with people and using science as a tool to instill passion about the ocean and conservation and better kinds of fisheries management,” Reed says. “So I’m at a crossroads, I guess, between fish and fisheries and the people that work with all of that.”
All paths lead to the ocean, though, Reed says. It offers all: calm, excitement, challenge, and contentedness.
“Being on the water, it’s an interesting mix of feelings,” Reed says. “You’re insignificant and in awe of an awesome thing, a thing that’s a lot larger and more powerful than you, but at the same time, you kind of feel like you have your place. You don’t get that in the modern world.”
Laird French surfing at sunset
The Wave of Life
The lessons of surfing—concentration, respect, patience—are lessons that serve Christina Young as a student of history and marine affairs—and of life. “We all must keep moving on,” she says. “We must keep riding the wave of life.”
The Clinton, Connecticut native thinks she’ll follow in her grandmother’s footsteps one day and become a teacher. Maybe of maritime history. She is also deeply concerned about climate change and sustainability and expects those, too, will factor into her future professional plans. Because for Young, such global issues are deeply personal.
“The best thing is sitting on the water waiting, feeling the energy in the ocean moving around you,” Young says. “The other wonderful part is that, to me, surfing isn’t so much a sport as it is a way of life. It completes me.”