MOLI VIEW™

Take note, kids: It is possible to be paid to surf the best waves on the planet. Become a pro surfer. The Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour has surf contest stops all over the globe, beginning in March in Australia, then on to a whirlwind of stops in Fiji, Tahiti, South Africa, Brazil, Chile, France, Spain, Mexico, California, and culminating in December in the Holy Land of Surfing, where it all began: Hawaii. Sounds like the ideal trip around the world doesn't it? And yes, it's true that pro surfers earn less (especially the women) than most professional athletes, but it's still a dream job, for the talented, bold, and lucky few.

And while, like with most professional sports, it sure doesn't hurt to have both parents who push/support you and golden good looks, the surfing field is smaller with less money at stake than most other pro sports, so it's still less cutthroat and corrupt. And talent really does count. Look at Bobby Martinez. Sure he's from California (Santa Barbara to be exact), but this talented rookie is the first Mexican-American surfer to rank in the top 10 on the men's tour. The women's 2006 world champion, Sofia Mulanovich, is from Peru, of all places. And there's even a bad-ass Brazilian surfer of Arab heritage named Jihad Kodhr on the men's tour.

So while the dude jokes and stoner stereotypes may dominate, they really have no place in the changing world of professional surfing. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Hawaii in December, the site of the Super Bowl of surfing: the Vans Triple Crown.

Surfers are a minority in most parts of the world, but you'd never know it on the north shore of Oahu, where a good swell means everyone is late for work, and the Triple Crown final almost guarantees half the island's work force will be calling in sick. Imagine cars lined up along the highways for miles, and thousands of spectators huddled together on the sand for front-row seats on Ehukai Beach (Pipeline), thick as thieves.

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