00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:02 My name is Kevin Connolly.
00:18 I'm a professional surfer and surfboard manufacturer
00:21 in San Diego, California.
00:22 I'm 39 years old, and I love my job.
00:26 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:30 [APPLAUSE]
00:33 My brand is Kevin Connolly Surfboards.
00:37 My business here is Magic Plastics Unlimited.
00:41 Magic Plastics Unlimited basically
00:43 is a derivative of my nickname in the industry
00:46 for my whole life, which was Magic Feet.
00:48 So it was more of making magic out of plastic kind of idea.
00:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:58 I was born outside of California,
01:00 so what brought me to California was my father, who grew up here.
01:05 He wanted to always get back in the ocean
01:07 because he was a surfer.
01:08 So we lived in Oklahoma at the time,
01:12 and his parents were here, so my grandparents were here.
01:15 And my grandmother's house, where my dad grew up
01:18 when he was a kid, had a big old longboard.
01:22 And it was something that when I always
01:24 came to visit my grandparents in California
01:27 when I was little, that was my image of surfing.
01:30 So I grew up as a shortboarder when I started surfing.
01:35 But as soon as I started riding a longboard,
01:37 that kind of brought me back to this little kid's feeling
01:41 and era, and that's what hooked me on making longboards
01:45 and surfing longboards.
01:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:54 What I love about surfing so much and the ocean
01:57 is the fact that you can have anything on your mind,
02:01 any stresses, and go out in the ocean,
02:04 even if the waves are bad.
02:06 Get the salt water on your body.
02:09 Only be with you and nature in the ocean.
02:12 It's between you and the waves.
02:13 It has nothing to do with anything else.
02:15 You kind of forget about anything and everything,
02:18 and/or you work things out in your head
02:21 while you sit out there and you wait for waves.
02:23 And it's a great peaceful aspect to life.
02:27 And you come in, you sleep good at night
02:30 because you're tired because you paddled around,
02:33 and you feel good.
02:35 It's a common saying in the surf industry
02:37 is like, only a surfer knows the feeling.
02:41 But it's something that's good for your soul,
02:43 I think, that helps you live a happy life.
02:47 Surfing drives surfing, and I think
02:52 that's why I've been in the industry for my whole life.
02:56 Made surfboards, whether there was money there to be made
02:59 or not.
03:01 I met my wife at the beach.
03:04 So we're beach people, raising the kids at the beach.
03:08 Becoming a father had a lot of--
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