The sun comes out after a week of rain. Venice is thriving, as what seems to have been an eternal winter is finally over. Conrad Jack Carr comes out of his boss’s house dressed head to toe in the coziest, colorful tie-dye. Sitting on the pavement in a sunlit patch Carr nonchalantly shares the story of a lifetime.

It would be an understatement to say Carr has seen and experienced more than the average 22 year old. Born into a Mormon family but also destined to surf, Carr faced an eternity of difficult and opposing choices.

It all started when his dad took him surfing age 7. Carr describes it as the “worst experience ever.”

His dad didn’t know much about surfing, but was trying to push him into the waves. This ended with Carr’s board hitting him in the face. He describes a lot of blood and tears; he was traumatized.

Four years later Carr got back in the water, this time with his older brother. Carr had an innate talent and ability in the water. He moved with more ease in the ocean than out of it. He was able to glide, with a ferocious amount of dexterity, among the waves. It wasn’t long before he was sponsored by Quiksilver at the age of 12.

“That’s the dream come true,” he says. “Life mission accomplished.”

From then on, Carr says, “Surfing was life”.

He traveled all around the world for the next few years, including Indonesia and South Africa. Carr fell in love with this way of life, but when his mom told him it was time to go home, he had to go.

“I was raised Mormon this whole time, my whole life was surfing and Mormonism.”

His life seemed as if it was heading in a relatively predictable direction: Carr was going to be a pro surfer, and it was all going just like he dreamt it. Between the ages of 17 and 18 he was getting paid, continuing to travel a lot, and participating in contests. However, once he turned 19 a lot of things changed.

After being at college in Hawaii, working on getting his degree while continuing to surf, Carr underwent a major shift in his life path. He decided that it was part of his duty as a Mormon to go on a mission. So, for two years, Carr lived and preached in the heart of Siberia, Russia.

“It was the best experience,” he says, his face lighting up. “Being a missionary is crazy”.

Carr had a spiritual awakening; he describes feeling the spirit. He would preach every day on the buses. Perhaps Carr wasn’t destined to be a pro surfer after all…

However, three months into his mission he went to Finland in order to renew his visa. Carr describes seeing the ocean there.

“I was crying. It hit close to home. I missed surfing a lot.”

After the mission, Carr went back to Hawaii in order to finish his degree. He then decided that it was time to try something new. He moved to Hollywood and ended up writing five feature film scripts, including a parody autobiographical, a biographical, a drama, and a horror.

Carr has dipped into so many of the pools of life, trying out such a vast variety of eclectic opportunities.

Carr has worked for many years in cryptocurrency, and he says he borderline accidentally made a large amount of money. Carr then decided he was going to walk from New York to Miami – this idea soon became a way for him to raise money for charity, whereby he was sponsored by his many supporters.

Yet, throughout all these moments, Carr still manages to go surfing, even though the idea of going pro is no longer is priority.

Carr goes on to describe his future endeavors: he wants to have a wave pool so that he can surf whenever he wants, and so that he can teach inner city and mentally ill kids how to surf.

“That’s the dream,” he says.

Throughout all these wild and transformative experiences, one thing has remained constant in Carr’s life: surfing. No matter what, he’ll always be drawn to the sea – it keeps him sane and it keeps him happy. So even though Carr is likely to continue to travel the world on all sorts of crazy adventures, there’s one place we know we can always find him: out in the waves.