June 7th 2016: This student life

If you surf and you want to get a tertiary education then you'd have to consider University of Otago as one of this country's best options. If you're an international student, and you have half an ear to the ground, then you'd be struggling to find a better university surf city than Dunedin, New Zealand. And that's exactly how this week's featured surfers ended up harvesting Dunedin waves for a term.

You've probably met them around the lineups – four chilled-out Southern Californians ridiculously well-adjusted to New Zealand surfing life ... and clocking up more barrel time in a semester at varsity than most of us will hope to experience in a lifetime.

Jordan Kudla is from San Clemente – he lives right next to Trestles, which explains why his air game is as on point as his barrel riding. Then there's Hawaiian charger Timmy Metcalf who has settled into the warping waves of Otago like he was born here. Noah Salazar is riding world champ Adriano de Souza's old board ... most people collect them and put them on a wall. Noah, from Ventura, keeps putting it through its paces in Southern pits. Then the last of the four Californians is Conner Carlson – a San Diego surfer relishing his Kiwi adventure.

As polite and relaxed as they are talented in the surf, these mates seem to have landed on their feet in New Zealand. They study at Point Loma Nazarene University, perched high on a cliff above the San Diego coastline. Way below is their local wave – Sunset Cliffs and this is where they normally hone their skills in their study breaks. They arrived in New Zealand at the end of February to indulge and draw inspiration from the South Pacific Ocean, but their dream semester is coming to an end in June when they return to the States. I have a feeling they'll be taking some pretty incredible memories home with them. Inspired? I am.

See you at the beach ... Derek

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