Cory Hubbard remembered as loving son, brother and adventurer

In the heat and in bone-chilling cold, Cory Hubbard would plop his surfboard in the ocean and ride the waves.

He surfed in Westhampton Beach, his hometown, and in Australia, where he spent his fall semester last year at Bond University in Queensland.

Friday morning, the 22-year-old and his older brother, Kyle Hubbard, 24, planned to surf at Lashley Beach in Westhampton Beach.

But Hubbard's promising life as a student and adventurer was cut short early Friday when he was killed in a hit-and-run accident around 1:30 a.m. near the University of Maryland campus at College Park as he tried to cross Baltimore Avenue at Knox Road, an area with restaurants and bars, police said. Hubbard was a senior at the university and planned to graduate in May.

As of late Saturday, no charges had been announced against the driver, who police said turned himself in Friday afternoon.

At their home in Westhampton Beach, Hubbard's family looked at photos and laughed, remembering the thrill-seeker, jokester, loving son and brother.

"He makes us laugh. He makes us cry. He makes us mad. He does all of that at the same time," said his mother, Holly Hubbard.

A 2010 graduate of Westhampton Beach High School, Hubbard wrestled, played football and lacrosse. He was an all-Suffolk County selection in both sports, said school athletic director Kathleen Masterson. "He was a kid that worked his rear end off at all times, and always did it with a smile," she said.

A kinesiology major at Maryland, Hubbard surfed off the Gold Coast in Queensland in Australia during his fall semester abroad. He also went bungee jumping in New Zealand.

"He spent a lot of time surfing; I don't know how much time in class," said his mother, a physical education and health teacher at Westhampton Beach Middle School.

Hubbard grew to appreciate nature and traveling from his mother and father, Ralph Hubbard, a retired Hampton Bays High School science teacher.

"He was very gregarious, very approachable. He's got friends all over the place," Ralph Hubbard said.

On Friday, Kyle Hubbard went to Lashley Beach by himself to surf.

"I felt like he would have wanted me to," he said.

Hubbard is survived by his parents and brother. The viewing will be held Monday from 7 to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 7 to 9 p.m. at Follett & Werner Funeral Home, in Westhampton Beach. The funeral will be Wednesday at the Westhampton Presbyterian Church.