Trying to figure out what you want to do with your life is tough, but once you find something that you love, the rest is effortless. For 2010 Southern Lehigh alumnus, Vinny Mattiola, the job that he loves to do is being the founder and captain of his sailing company, Dorado Adventures.

“Dorado Adventures was the natural progression from my freelance sailing charter and adventure trips I was running with my friends,” Mattiola said. “I realized that I could drum up enough interest in sailing vacations with a more formal company, so I just went at it head first!”

In high school, Mattiola was a determined soccer player and a dedicated member of the track and field team.

“He is a go-getter,” soccer coach Mr. Doug Roncolato said. “He was always a very outstanding hard worker both in the classroom and on the field. He was even a nicer person than he was a player.”

Substitute teacher Mrs. Sylvia Hinton fondly recalls him being determined, intelligent, and an overall kind person.

“I know that you have to have a lot of discipline to start and manage a successful business,” Mrs. Hinton said.

Mattiola first learned how to sail at Lake Nockamixon around the age of 11. In high school he would often take his friends out on the lake. Once he was in college at the University of Pittsburgh, he started a sailing club.

“I’d caught the travel bug from studying abroad and summer volunteering stints, and realized I could work on boats while also seeing corners of the planet that pretty much nobody else ever sees,” Mattiola said. “It was a win-win situation, so I just went for it.”

When he graduated from Pitt, his parents wanted him to go straight to medical school, but Mattiola felt mentally exhausted and decided to take some time off. He sailed from Norfolk, Virginia to St. Augustine, Florida with one of his friends.

“My parents weren’t stoked about that decision, but eventually they came around to agree that I just wouldn’t have succeeded in medical school at that time,” Mattiola said. “Now, my parents check in to make sure I’m still alive every now and then and have helped me out in a pinch here and there.”

Sailing definitely isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. Mattiola once was sailing around the world, when he came across a gigantic storm. The boat’s wind indicator showed the gusts of wind to be 65 knots, before the wind indicator got ripped off by the wind.

“Technically, that’s just at the cusp of ‘hurricane,’ but the storm was never formally upgraded,” Mattiola said. “We probably saw 25 to 30 foot steep waves. It was absolutely terrifying. In those winds the ocean isn’t blue, or even black anymore; it’s just white. The sea becomes a foamy, frothy mess with streaks of sea foam whipping across the deck. Eventually you can barely see the waves coming; you just hear them. We spent about 14 hours…on Azzurra, the boat I now own. I think if you aren’t scared a few times while traveling, you’re not doing it right.”

After sailing for so many years with his friends, he eventually became the captain of his own company.

“It’s really fun to be marketing and advertising my own business and working out all the logistics of all kinds of trips on whatever terms guests like,” Mattiola said. “We’re all about flexibility, and wanted to offer a wide range of trip options, from college spring break, to luxury sailing, SCUBA certification, eco-cruises, Yoga Retreats, and Learn to Sail cruises in the British Virgin Islands and beyond.”