Pro surfer Bobby Martinez, 26, has sort of double life in Santa Barbara. He comes from a neighborhood that he describes as "100-percent Mexican," with many peers who don't see much of a future, much less a chance to take the time to see the nearby ocean. But Bobby Martinez has always seen the water, which is why he is one of the best pro surfers in the world.

"I think that where I come from definitely helps keep me humble," Martinez says.

Pro surfers, by and large, are good people with open minds. Still, there is not a whole lot of ethnicity in pro surfing. While Bobby Martinez was taking to the water on a boogie board, his Mexican-American peers were not doing the same. In that part of his life along Santa Barbara's Pacific Ocean shoreline, Martinez was a loner. He would hang out with his friends in his neighborhood. Then, when he went to the surf, he would encounter mostly white or Hawaiian kids.

Bobby Martinez is sometimes portrayed as a "gangsta" in the pro surfing world.

"Maybe it's because I'm Mexican, and I've got tattoos, and I listen to hip-hop," he says. "I don't know. I just trip out on it."

Born in 1982, Bobby Martinez was a hot pro surfing prospect at the turn of the millennium. Still, he did not truly emerge until the past three years.

Bobby Martinez says he started taking surfing seriously in 2003, when he was 21, but he still needed a couple years of hard practice before he emerged in the pro surfing tour.

Martinez got married a year ago to Cleo Neuman from the Australian Gold Coast. They have a new house in Santa Barbara that's one block from the beach.

"That's the best thing," Bobby Martinez told a reporter. "I have dreams in terms of surfing, but more than that, I've got dreams as a person. I've always wanted to own a home, and now I can do that because of surfing, and I realize that it's a gift."

Sources:
http://surfermag.com/magazine/archivedissues/almost-not-famous-july-2007/index4.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Martinez