Beach
professor surfs through class
By
Kristen Wooley
On-line Forty-Niner
Robb
Westerkamp is a professor at Cal State Long
Beach, but a beach boy at heart. The traveling
man emigrated from Indonesia and after leaving
the country, spent several years drifting
getting odd jobs to fund his lifestyle.
Living in Holland for five years, Westerkamp
said, was a far cry from the tropical weather
he was used to in Indonesia. "I froze
my hind end off," he said.
Westerkamp
first began his exploring right out of high
school when he bought a one way ticket to
Europe planning to pick up work as he traveled.
At one point he lived in a hut on a beach
in the Canary Islands, using a craft he
was close to mastering, constructing surfboards,
to earn enough money to get him back to
Europe and eventually to California.
"I
was around 20 or 21 years old when I was
living by myself in a hut in the islands,
but I had two surfboards so I wasn't really
alone," he said. "I was only making
50 cents an hour refinishing boats with
the resign and fiberglass that I had used
to make surfboards, but my boss assured
me that other workers on the island were
making about a dime an hour," he said.
After seeing the world, Westerkamp settled
in California which he says suits his surfing
habit quite nicely.
"I
tell all my students that when they get
out of school, they should travel for at
least a year and work at making a world
for themselves somewhere else," Westerkamp
said. "You never know how good you
have it until you get out of America."
Westerkamp
is a design major on campus, but does freelance
industrial design work for large corporations.
"Once you have a craft that you can
utilize, mine being drawing and design,
you can use it anywhere," he said.
"As a designer you work with your hands,
your head and your heart."
Teaching
has its advantages and disadvantages, he
admitted, but in the end is very rewarding.
"I give all my finals on the beach,"
he said. "It's become a tradition.
Last semester I spent two eight-hour days
in the water with 125 students at the beach."
As
a previously avid surfer, Westercamp said
his trips to the beach several times a week
have been narrowed down to around one day
a week. "You have to remember, I'm
over 50 years old," he said. As part
of the over-the-hill crew that surfs the
beaches of Bolsa Chica, Westerkamp said
there is nothing better for you than to
get exercise by swimming and surfing.
"Once
you have a craft that you can utilize, mine
being drawing and design, you can use it
anywhere. As a designer you work with your
hands, your head and your heart."
-- Robb Westerkamp, professor
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