that worked for me until I was 19, then I had to go work in a surf shop during the winter- definetly not a good career choice when you have options in front of you that Ben seems to have- get the degree and go from there! I put working on a boat in front of going to summer school at SLO, went to SDSU instead cause I could fish all summer- looking back, I wish I would have put school first and went to Cal Poly, that's just me but looking back now, there's always time for fishing, don't pass on a great shot at a good education- Not that SDSU is bad, but I wish I had an engineering degree from SLO instead of a surfing degree from SDSU- :o

Looking back, I'd be fishing from the front of my boat instead of the back of somebody else's boat if I was more concerned with education when I was 17