Today we’d like to introduce you to Kurrent Cockett.
Hi Kurrent, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
From Hawaii, grew up in Oklahoma as a kid, came back to Maui to finish high school and reconnect with old roots. Moved to San Diego about 10 years ago to venture off the island and explore new endeavors.
Found my love in sports from my mom throwing me into anything she could to keep us kids busy from early ages of kindergarten to high school. I discovered how sports and competitions provided strong building blocks for my character growing up, which helped me positively in my academic, social, and personal aspects.
Fast forward to after high school, slowly gave up on my skateboarding career and continued following a new passion of my martial arts journey. Started with wrestling (age 6), Tae Kwon Do, boxing, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, and MMA. Took a side passion of competing in MMA seriously for about 11 years and stepped away to coach at many gyms across San Diego County after having my first-born son.
Found sharing the passion of martial with others became a new rewarding endeavor to help others grow in areas of their own personal lives. This sparked a new passion of coaching and helping others become better versions of themselves.
Now, with 3 beautiful kids and wife, I continue to coach and give back to the community as much as I possibly can. I always had a side-recreational passion for surfing (from Hawaii, I had to be by the ocean), and I am blessed to help with a small-business surf school in La Jolla. I wear many hats and help out in many different ways that allow me to coach kids and adults in sharing the passion of surfing.
Growing up, I always had a fascination for technology; as technology improves, it can give us tools to make our lives, and other people’s lives, a little better. As a digital marketer, I have witnessed the growth in many tech sectors, and following this growth of technology for many years now, it still fascinates me on how the world grew and what new tools us humans will use to help and communicate between others.
Based on the cartoons of the “Jetsons,” I think we are technologically lacking… ; )
I have discovered many other interests that will keep me hungry to grow and excel in all areas of my life to find ways to help others. I now have a heavy focus with my kids (6yr, 5yr, and 1yr old) to give and teach them everything I have learned and continue to learn in their lives early on. Growing up, my single mother of 3 would have and did sacrifice everything for us kids to have a better life. I only wish to do the same and more.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth roads can happen for many, but there is no straight path to our destinations.
For my personal struggles, I have discovered losses make for a great learning lesson.
Using the example of sports, I have witnessed this on many occasions, and having to deal and coup with losses had me reflect a lot on the situations. Some hard losses growing up would be when I dropped the winning touchdown pass in a championship game, losing a State Championship wrestling match by 2 points, or losing an MMA world title match in Hawaii, or thousands $ on business adventures.
I could go into more details, but sometimes we grow through what we go through. Experience is the best teacher.
Currently, biggest struggle is to balance a work and family life. With childcare being so expensive and no close family members to help out, the wife and I have to coordinate and sacrifice a lot to watch our keikis (kids). With just the 2 of us (Will Smith song in background), we have grown stronger as a family. I have grown with being a father so much so that every day is a blessing and chance to help my little grow to the little awesome people they can be.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Part-time employee at Surf Diva Surf School and Boutique, I wear many hats operationally.
Surf Diva is a small family-owned and operated business that has been around San Diego for the past 25+ years. I have been with them for almost 5 years now.
On the beach, I am a lead instructor and beach manager. I help oversee operations and help with logistics of services that happen on the beach. Mostly surf lessons, surf clinics, corporate team buildings, and surf camps, there are a lot of moving pieces that constantly need attention in order to fulfill the service’s standard levels. I also help run programs and train new employees on all the aspects of operations beachside.
In the shop, I help with retail supervision, equipment manager, and customer service. Being an equipment coordinator which oversees all rental equipment and retail equipment, I am in constant evaluation of best products to use or recommend to clients. Retail supervisor, I help with training new staff in-shop with customer service-related training and product quality control.
In the office, I help with administrative work and planning programs/projects for upcoming events. I also help spearhead a lot of new operational tasks like new SOPs and protocols of standards of services. I also use my freelance skills of digital marketing to help assist with their small team of in-house marketing efforts. Using other marketing skills I have partaken in, I have been to multiple schools around San Diego and other events to share and present ocean awareness and other ocean education.
I am most known for my constant “Aloha” and ever-positive customer service to all clients and people that just stop into the SD shop. As a hospitality and marketing major, I have had innate passion for my hospitality efforts. My genuine efforts to make everyone feel special and cared for have set me apart from others and helped me become an important part of the SD team and community around them.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
San Diego and southern California is such an amazing place. Coming from Maui, I had to be close to the ocean, surf, and beautiful weather.
San Diego has just that. Before moving to SD, I visited all California and other westerly states for options to move from.
With the surf and weather being close to Hawaii’s, it was an easy choice to move here in 2014. Working for many hotels in Hawaii and being in the hospitality tourism industry, there were a lot of work options.
All of California has so much to offer and explore. With being able to drive anywhere you want, California offers a lot that I still haven’t even got to see yet.
Living in California can be costly; what all people are aware of cost of living can exceed past one’s financial desires. But living in Hawaii, it’s practically the same, but in California, there’s more areas to locate to fit one’s financial needs. This is basically, “You pay for where you live,” is so true. But I don’t mind as there are always trade-offs in our lives.
Contact Info:
- Website: cryptokurrentc.com
- Instagram: KurrentC , SurfSchoolSEO
- Facebook: Kurrent Cockett
- Linkedin: Kurrent Cockett
- Youtube: Kurrentlyaware
Image Credits
Laurie K photography
