WORKING -- Matt Bolen

HE IS

Helping you sell your house

REAL ADVERTISING

Bolen is the advertising director at Huntington Beach Realty. He designs

and produces ads for real estate agents.

The Huntington Beach resident has been working with his dad, Bob Bolen,

at the family-owned company for a year. At 20, he’s the youngest one in

the office, but he doesn’t mind.

“It’s fun working with the older crowd,” he jokes, looking over at one of

the agents, who peers back over his glasses with a smile .

It’s not a stuffy place to work, especially with the office decorated

like a surf store. Bolen’s dad makes surfboards, T-shirts and hats, which

he sells out of the office.

“It’s sort of a real estate/surf shop,” Bolen said.

Besides the decor, Bolen also enjoys the mellowness of Downtown, where

the office is.

“People just wander in and hang out,” he said. “We get surfers, gothic

people -- everything.”

ADVERTISING NOW, FIREFIGHTER LATER

The flexible hours advertising provides are perfect for the student.

Bolen’s goal is to finish school at Orange Coast College, where he is an

honor student majoring in Spanish. Bolen plans to graduate next winter.

Afterward, he wants to travel a little.

“I’d like to go to Costa Rica to study and learn the language better,” he

said.

Bolen hopes that by increasing his Spanish-speaking ability he will

increase his chances in the job market. He plans to become a firefighter

paramedic.

Bolen said he is already taking classes to be an emergency medical

technician, and he will test for the EMT title in May.

But that’s not enough of a challenge for Bolen. He also wants to sell

homes like his dad. When he becomes a firefighter, he plans to sell real

estate on the side.

“The summer’s going to be busy: getting my real estate license, working

for Schaefer Ambulance company and going to summer school,” he said.

HOBBIES AND SPORTS

With his job and his studies, Bolen spends his spare time playing roller

hockey. He has been playing for seven years and won the national

championship the past two years with his club team, the Beach Boys.

“I’m trying to get a roller hockey team started at OCC,” he said.

Bolen also enjoys photography, which fits in with part of his job --

taking pictures of homes for ads.

“I like photographing landscapes and sunsets,” he said.

When he photographs people, he prefers them to be surfing.

“The ocean is awesome,” he said.

BEACH BOY

Living and working near the water, as well as having a dad who makes

surfboards, Bolen can’t help but be a surfer himself.

“I go down to Mexico with my friends to surf there, too,” he said.

He also spent four of his summers working at a snack bar at the beach.

Bolen said he would never want to move away from Surf City.

“There are good waves, good weather,” he said. “I could never live away

from the ocean.”