Ryan Kimmel could have stayed on the beaches of the North Shore surfing the infamous Pipeline, surrounded by photographers, amongst the likes of surf demigods like Kelly Slater and Andy Irons, but instead he chose the road less traveled.
“It’s pretty exciting, but some people think it’s horrible,” Kimmel said of his decision to leave the fantastical world of professional surfing to journey into the field of investment banking.
Now here he sits in his well-conditioned Westwood apartment, textbooks strayed across the couch and CNBC’s stock update flickering across the television screen.
Growing up in Mammoth County, New Jersey, the third-year business economics student began surfing on the icy Eastern Seaboard.
“My dad just took me surfing in the summer, then eventually I started going in the winter, in the snow,” Kimmel said.
As a teenager, his love for the ocean led him to compete in amateur tournaments as well as with the National Scholastic Surfing Association, which focuses on student surfers.
Bouncing from contest to contest, Kimmel eventually won the East Coast Championships in Florida, jump-starting his career at the tender age of 17.
Kimmel received his first paying contract with No Fear Corporation, which included a starting salary of $20,000.
“My friends were working at the local pizza shop and I was getting paid to surf,” Kimmel said, waving his hands over his head in mocking celebration.
Soon after graduating high school, the newly discovered pro surfer took his new paycheck and board out to San Clemente, where he hoped to immerse himself in the surfing subculture.
“This is where the industry is, and I wanted to be in the heart of it,” Kimmel said.
Shortly upon arriving, he left his new California home behind, packed his bags, and headed for Key West, Fla., in search of the perfect wave.
His journey through the small islands off the coast of Florida soon led him into foreign oceans, where he traveled through Indonesia, Fiji, and Tahiti.
“I wasn’t really focused,” Kimmel said. “I was just having fun, being 18 (and) traveling the world.”
His lack of focus showed, and in the beginning years of his professional surfing career he had yet to win another contest.
By 2001, Kimmel’s career shifted from participating in competitions to photography surfing.
“I kind of found a niche at pulling into big barrels,” he said. “All I needed was a water photographer, huge waves, and a single shot.”
His lack of fear in the face of some of the heaviest waves in the world earned him a shot on the cover of Surfer Magazine in 2001, shot while on his second trip to Indonesia near the large island of Sumatra.
Nearing six years into his professional career, Kimmel began showing signs of fatigue and boredom with what most college students would consider a dream job.
“I wanted something more,” he said. “I wasn’t mentally stimulated. The conversations were all the same. What the waves were like yesterday, what they’re like today, and what they are going to be like tomorrow.”
His frustration with the monotony of the supposed dream life led him, without the approval of his sponsors, to take night classes at Santa Monica College during his brief stays at home.
Kimmel started becoming interested in the corporate finance world, specifically when fellow surf companies began going public in recent years. With a newfound passion for business, he performed freelance research surrounding a potential career in investment banking.
“I knew I didn’t want to make the same amount of money when I was 30,” Kimmel said. “There were bigger fish to fry and I wanted a piece of it.”
After leaving the white sandy beaches, 80-degree water and laid-back lifestyle behind, he began attacking a full academic load as a UCLA transfer with the hopes of receiving a position in the business economics departmental honors program.
“I think why Ryan was able to be so successful as a professional surfer, and again now as a student, is simply because he is such a driven, goal-oriented person,” fellow surf team member Thomas McMahon said.
For this summer, Kimmel has secured an internship with Imperial Capital, a prestigious investment banking company just a few minutes away in Century City.
The transition has been frustrating for Kimmel in terms of balancing his newfound responsibilities with schoolwork and surfing.
“Schoolwork definitely overwhelms the surf part,” Kimmel said. “You have to put so much time in, but it’s worth it.”
With his views shifting from the crystal-clear waters of the Indian Ocean to the worn-down green of a South Campus chalkboard, Kimmel is transforming his identity further and further away from the all-too-present Jeff Spicoli stereotype of today’s surfers.
“The group of surfers at UCLA are all really knowledgeable,” Kimmel said. “Just last night, we were all here talking about the physics behind fission and fusion.”
What was once a profession has been formed into a weekend hobby, replaced with an uncomfortable wooden chair in Powell Library.
“No matter what field we get into ““ investment banking, urban studies, all stuff like that ““ at the end of the day, we can all go surf,” Kimmel said.