Blue Belt

Chapter 5

                                                                          V.

        It was the beginning of the fourth week for me.  Now I'd have to combine all the new nuances of OKI with my work study which was just getting started.  As I walked along the beach, back towards the local marina where the shops were, I was not sure what to expect from this.  "Benson's Surf Shop" kept ringing in my head.  And hey, I was not even a surfer.  I would be working five six hour shifts now, in addition to my training.  As Jed noted at breakfast this morning, my life was about to change.  We had talked about whether he thought work study or being a student was tougher in terms of doing each alongside the OKI training.

            "It's one or the other."  Jed had said at breakfast, "only off site students, who take the training in a different format, don't have the choice to make.  The rest of us will have to deal with one or the other.  It will make your life busier, you can be sure of that."

            I figured working at a surf shop could not be that hard.  And certainly it was not the job I would have expected to be assigned to.  One thing I knew, I would learn a thing or two about surfing over time as well.  It was ironic that as I walked the beach that morning, I could see a lot of people out surfing on their boards along the Oceanside beach.  Some students of OKI walked the beach often, but I had not done much on the beach as of yet, so this walk up to the marina area seemed refreshing.  I had been by the marina once before, back by where all the shops were.  It was like a smaller mall tucked away from the public beach by a couple hundred feet.  It was a collection of small shops all joined together in a brown wooded building.  Access to all the shops was available from the outside, or from an inside track.  And along the walkway was a small section of water that people could look out upon which led back towards the ocean and marina area.  "Benson's Surf Shop" itself was kind of in the middle.  One had to walk through kind of a narrow indentation of the building to get back there.  It was away from the central waterside walkway, but signs pointed to the access.  The sign itself had "Benson's" in big red lettering, followed by small blue lettering for the surf and shop.  Then below it was a picture of a beach with a sun drawn in, along with a blue ocean and some waves.

            As I walked in the door of the shop I was met by a couple rows of hanging tee-shirts followed by a couple rows of shorts, and a couple of wet suits.  Beyond that, to my right, was a long row of different surf boards, and straight ahead was a stand up mirror.  I walked past all of that and could see the main counter.  There was a cash register, a small bell that one could ring by pushing the button on the top, some other small items in cardboard shelving standing on the counter, and then I also saw that the counter itself had a case built in which had different kinds of sun glasses.  As I got closer, a rather large rotund man approached from the left side and manned the counter.  He looked like he was in his fifties or so.  He was pretty much bald, except for a small ring of dark hair around the back of his head.  He wore glasses with thick black plastic rims and had brown eyes.  He had a fairly large nose on which the glasses rested.  He was also very tan.  His apparel consisted of a Hawaiian shirt which was un-tucked, along with long tan shorts.

            "Hello.  I'm Matt."  I said as I reached the front of the counter.

            "Nice to meet you."  He said with an Eastern accent as he extended his hand my way.  "I'm Jack Benson, the owner."  We shook hands and nodded.  "Your from Aaron's school I take it."

            "Yes, the Oceanside Karate Institute."  I said back, caught slightly off guard but then making the connection to Aaron Reeder.

            "Well, I looked over your application that they sent a few weeks ago along with your essay.  We'll give you a try here."

            He asked me a few questions about my work history, along with how I came to be at OKI.  He also wanted to know if I had any beach or surf experience in the past.  I answered all his questions in a straight forward fashion and tried to sound motivated for the job.  I realized this was a big part of my experience at the school, and that me, not attending classes, really needed this job.  And of course the money played a big part too.