{Photo by Jason Evans}

The perfect day in Newport, Rhode Island begins at 6:15 am. I awake without an alarm clock and lie in bed considering images and thoughts from dreams the night before. 6:30 am. The house is quiet. My beautiful wife smiles while she sleeps. I get up and put on a pot of coffee and sit on the couch to meditate. On the way to the couch I greet the valencia-orange sunrise that quickly fills our living room. It’s like that just about every day but on this particular Friday morning, the view out the window is exceptional. Fog blows in off the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred yards south of us. I watch it for a moment as it makes its way up the valley below our neighborhood.  6:45 am. Breathing deep and counting the calls of the new birds of spring in New England.  I disappear from there and feel energized and ready to go when I open my eyes. I pack up my faithful canine companion Jack and head for work.

7:30 am. I’m the first one at our studio – a short walk from the house. This morning I needed to finalize the new salaries for our staff. In a difficult business climate our studio is busy and doing well. Everyone gets a raise this year and is still working 40-hour weeks.  We’re thriving and it feels great. I write letters to each employee thanking them for their hard work and detailing the raise and new salary.

{Photo by Jason Evans}

8:30 am. I take a coffee and cigarette break outside while the studio staff arrives. While I’m out there I get the perfect phone call on the cell. It’s my neighbor who tells me he has a referral for me. His good friend and colleague is a boat builder in Bristol and looking to design and build a new website. I take some information and thank my neighbor. He’s a great guy all around.

10 am. A quick morning pow-wow with the other designers. Projects are going smoothly and looking good. I check my to-do list and I’m pretty well caught-up. Still have to prepare the bloody taxes – which aren’t that hard to do but too many numbers for an artist on a Friday. Procrastination kicks in and I check the local web cams to see if there’s any surf. Should have been flat as a lake but to my surprise some really nice looking waves at first (Easton’s) beach. I send out a few texts and IMs to the guys I surf with. No response… they’re trapped in meetings. I call the Water Brothers surf report. A mystery swell is hitting the rocky corner at Easton’s Beach perfectly. It rarely breaks like this and when it does it’s the perfect wave.  Picking up the pace at my desk I dash off 10 or 20 emails to clients, prospects and staff. In come a few more… our office admin has prepared much of the numbers for the taxman. I get back in touch with a prospect at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society. I check in on a logo contest we submitted work to.

11 am. We’re working on an environmental project for a filmmaker attempting to traverse the Northwest Passage and interviewing politicians and locals about what will become of this new frontier. The Passage is an illusive shipping route through Canada and the Arctic that’s opening up due to climate change. Its a great project and the client approves the design work of his website and movie title treatments without any changes. Amazing.  Our Intern comes into my office with a great looking flier she designed for the RI Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation‘s new member movie night event. Such a great group and its a pleasure to support their efforts. Made a note to write them a check for our corporate membership.

{Photo by G.E. Long}

12:30. Surf is still looking really good at the beaches. Still no word from my surfing companions. My wife and I decided to do a vegetarian diet for the month of March so I grab a granola bar and a banana, chug some water and head outside for the mid-day cigarette -  pure contradiction but hey no one’s perfect. I work through lunch sending another 10 or 20 emails off followed by a long phone call with a client looking to expand their website publishing system. I gather the specs and give her some tips on the books and publications she’s working on.  I get another email from our Northwest Passage Film client. His director wants historical maps, charts and other graphics incorporated into the film website and trailer. Fun stuff. The work is rolling in and the client is one of our favorites. Everything is going so smoothly today but the real joy of this perfect day is yet to come.

2 pm. The important stuff on my to-do list is done (except for finishing taxes which we already filed an extension for). One last call to the surf report – no update, the beach cam still looks really good. I can see a few guys are out in the water. It’s sunny and the birds are saying that this is one of the first warm days of spring. I make a final round checking in with designers. They don’t need anything from me so I let them know I’m leaving early. It’s Friday and I’ve already put in 60 hours or so. I need fresh air and exercise. I tell the staff I may be back around 4:30 or 5pm and that if I don’t see them thank you for your hard work and have a great weekend.  I speed home, tear of my clothes and wiggle into my wetsuit. It’s a 6x4mm winter wetsuit. Heavy, but warm. I leave the car running and crank up the heat. Jack stares at me sadly because he knows I’m going to the beach without him.

{Photo by G.E. Long}

2:30 When I arrive at First Beach a few minutes later I’m astounded. A chest-high set of waves is peeling in long lines. There’s one or two guys out and the sun is still shining. I grab the longboard from off the car. It’s just big enough to consider wearing a leash (that cord that attaches the board to your leg). I much prefer surfing without it even though I’ll be over by the rocks. I go without the leash and paddle out into the frigid water as a flock of geese fly overhead. The sun is shining and the water is clean and clear. The waves are coming in and peeling off the rocky coast. I grab the first one and drop in, then cut back and get a little cover up inside the tube. It doesn’t get any better than this. I grab another wave. This one’s really walling up and again I cut back, drag my hand along the wave to stall out and wait for the lip to peel over my back. I get low and tuck in. Another guy paddling out is looking down the line of the wave at me… just far enough away not to intrude. We’re both “stoked.” About an hour goes by… more prefect waves rolling in. A bunch more guys are in the water but no one seems to want to line up in the cove along the rocks where I am. I’m all alone frolicking in lovely weather and perfect surf.

4:30. I take one last wave in and check emails at the car. Nothing critical. I blast one or two more emails out from the iPhone trying not to get any water on it. Still in my wetsuit I throw the phone back in the car and head out for a few more waves.

It’s 5:30 when I finally get back to the house. I crack a beer in the basement bathroom and it goes down pretty quick while I peel my way out of the wet and heavy winter wetsuit. Jack comes down to see what’s the commotion. A long hot shower and the feeling returns to my toes and feet.  I finish getting dressed and my lovely wife Fede walks in the door. I tell her all about my Perfect Day. She had one too. We’re both really enjoying life and nothing feels better than that.  We hang out for a while on the back porch but it gets too cold as the sun goes down through the gigantic tree in our backyard.

7pm. Fede and I make a few pizzas in the kitchen – Tomato and garlic and another with left over veggies. Fede applauds my skillful pizza making. She loves that I cook for her and I love that she loves it. We eat and drink and talk for a few hours and eventually make it to bed for long night’s sleep.

Matt Dutra is the President and Chief Creative Officer of Rubic Design/RDI, a graphic design and website development studio in Newport, Rhode Island.

{My Perfect Day is a weekly Tidepooler series that reveals the most wonderful and interesting places in cities and towns around the world, as shared by the people who live there}