Athlete makes millions, athlete goes broke. It is a story as old as time, dating all the way back to the ancient version of the Olympic Games. While surfers are not paid as handsomely as stars in mainstream sports, they are certainly not immune to becoming a cautionary tale: broke, burnt out, and without a clue what to do with the rest of their lives. Not CJ Hobgood.
In 2013, after nearly two decades at the elite level, the 2001 World Champion saw the light beginning to fade on his competitive career. So when a chance to co-found Salty Crew presented itself, Hobgood jumped at the opportunity, even while he was still actively competing on the Championship Tour.
“The day before my heat at The Pipeline Masters was a layday, so I was calling around and booking appointments for Salty Crew at Surf Expo in Florida the next month,” Hobgood recalls of that whirlwind era. “I had calls with the buyers at Aqua East and Sunrise. And they were like, ‘Dude, what are you doing calling us right now? You’re still in the Pipe event!’”
Read on to hear Hobgood’s take on pivoting from professional surfing to building Salty Crew, and eventually finding a new competitive thrill in real estate sales. He stands as proof that it is never too early to start planning for life after a professional career.
SURFER: In the early 2000s, when the surf industry was flush with money and you were competing for world titles, did you give much thought to what the next chapter in your life might look like?
CJ Hobgood: You know, I was always pretty realistic. I never thought I was going to come out on the other side of pro surfing and not have to work another day in my life. I had a good understanding that, eventually, I’d be doing something else.
I’m not the craziest freak of nature in any sort of discipline. My entire life I’ve always had that frame of mind that I have to work just a little bit harder than the next guy. And once you understand your work ethic, it’s easier to structure your days. As a pro surfer, you gotta be pretty self motivated, right? Like nobody is telling you what to do so it’s really easy to do nothing [laughs]. Self discipline is a really great skill that surfing taught me and I knew eventually I’d be able to apply it to a differences disciple.
Like helping build Salty Crew, or selling real estate.
Exactly. Surfing also taught me that everything in the world is hard until you do it over and over again. I remember towards the end of my career on tour, when Salty Crew was just getting going, I was competing in the Pipe Masters and I had a heat against John John [Florence] in the round before the quarters. The day before my heat was a layday so I was calling around and booking appointments for Salty Crew at Surf Expo in Florida the next month. I had calls with the buyers at Aqua East and Sunrise. And they were like, ‘Dude, what are you doing calling us right now? You’re still in the Pipe event!’ I remember kinda laughing and telling them that surfing in the Pipe event was cool and all, but it’s not my future. My future was with Salty. That’s what meant the most to me at that point. And that’s what I was going to focus on.
What led you from building Salty Crew to transitioning to real estate sales?
A couple of things: I’m still involved with Salty Crew, but the brand is based in California and we’re living over here in Florida. But really when the transition happened was during Covid. We were all stuck home and everyone was moving and buying new houses, and my wife, Cortney, encouraged me to join her in that world. She was like, “everything you don’t know, I’ll teach you.” So I was like, okay, cool. I just applied the same concept of everything’s hard until you do it. I just stacked days until I had a year under the belt, and that’s when I started to feel comfortable. And now here I am, 5 years down the road, and now I don’t even have to think, It’s just automatic.
James Tull / Salty Crew
I’m at the point now that one of the biggest challenges is quality of life. With sales you can just be so driven, that you just work your life away, you know? Now it’s a matter of just recognizing that and not letting it take over our life. We went on a family trip in May, and then we came back and we were like, ‘dude, the market’s kind of hot right now.’So we just jumped straight back into it. Right now business is good. So we’ll just hunker down for the next couple of months and we’ll just work. But, when it slows up again, we’ll recognize that, and try to take advantage of it and go on another trip.
Do you ever struggle going long stretches without surfing?
It’s all about recognizing the different seasons in life. Like everyone we’re trying to find that balance. We want to take more trips. We also want to invest more. It’s always a moving target, but we’re constantly adjusting, calibrating, adjusting, and calibrating. There’s times I just want to be a kid and surf and be selfish but that’s not my reality, and that’s not healthy. But for all surfers, when you go from surfing every single day and having your entire life revolve around the ocean… it’s hard to give up that addiction. But I will say, after you let surfing go, when it comes back to you again, it’s like rediscovering it again for totally different reasons. I think that’s where I’m at now. I fell back in love with it. So now, when I get a freaking week where I can just go surf, I’m like, what? I’m a full on grom again [laughs]. I’m just so grateful for it.
Has it been interesting selling homes to clients that were previously fans of yours while you were on tour?
That’s really been a blessing to for me, as far as like, I don’t have to chase shiny objects. It’s just better to attract your tribe, right? When you attract your tribe, it’s easier, and I feel like when I show up to meet new clients, within the first couple of minutes, people already feel like they can trust me, because they already kinda know me. In sales, trust is the biggest hurdle. With trust, you can accomplish anything.
But every deal is still challenging, no matter the client, and no matter the house. I’ve learned you just have to grow a turtle shell. There’s times when I would let the ups and downs of a deal affect me a lot. That’s where Cortney has helped me a lot, growing a thicker turtle shell [laughs].
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