The sun had begun to set over the waves at Park Point and the wind had taken on a brutal chill. Most of the other surfers had left the beach when I saw Randy Carlson, 43, of Duluth MN, already wearing his full-body wetsuit, jump out of his Volkswagen Vanagon and unload his surfboard. 

 “Long day at the office, Randy?” I asked as he paddled by me. He just chuckled and shook his head. “I had to wash wetsuits!” he yelled over his shoulder just before he ducked a wave. 

As the head of UMD’s National Kayak and Canoe Institute (KCI), Carlson has a job that most people only get to dream about. He does adventure sports for a living - a lot of them.

Carlson has been working with UMD’s Recreational Sports Outdoor Program (RSOP) for twenty-five years. Along with facilitating all of KCI’s programming, he also runs the surfing, stand up paddle boarding, and snow kiting programs for the RSOP. 

“It’s a unique job.” Carlson admits. “It’s not really the sort of job you can apply for. Nobody told me I couldn’t start these programs, so I just did.”

Carlson received both his BAS in Teaching Earth Science and his Masters in Education at UMD and never left. 

“I’m an alternative thinker,”Carlson says. “I have spent the past 25 years creating my own job description…I’m still working on it.”

His office is overflowing with stacks of boxes, files, folders and old gear catalogues that, like Carlson himself, don’t seem to fit comfortably into the space. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the stacks of paper in his office was just a pile of his certifications. He’s an American Canoe Association certified Instructor trainer/educator in white water kayaking and canoeing as well as open water coastal kayaking, a wilderness first responder and, to top it off, a certified Professional Air Sport Association snow-kite instructor.

No matter how busy he is Carlson always stops whatever he’s doing to check the surf report for people passing by his office, even if they’re not particularly interested. He chats in long drawn out tangents, smiles constantly, and in short, is extremely mellow for a guy who makes his living kayaking, surfing, and kiting.

For every hour Carlson spends outside instructing, he spends at least two or three in his cluttered, windowless office doing prep-work or out running around organizing and cleaning gear for the next program.

 “It’s hard to balance everything” Says Carlson, who’s married and has two children. 

“But life is about balance, that’s why I’d rather be skillful in a wide variety of sports than specialize in just one…I don’t really care if I’m the best.  I just want to be safe, skilful and on the scene. There’s a similar generosity up here as there is in places like Hawaii, I think. We all share our experiences and resources to help one another. That’s why I like it here. ”

David Costello is a UMD student and freelance writer living in Duluth, Minnesota.