My family lived in Saipan, the small island in Micronesia, for two years when I was a toddler. I learned to swim there. My dad was teaching science at the local school. The indigenous Chamorros of the island took us under their wing. They had a knowledge and comfort level with the ocean that was beyond anything my family had seen. These are the Polynesian ocean voyagers who can sail around the Pacific without modern navigational tools.
Then I moved to Laguna Beach, California, which is where I live now. I spent tons of time in the ocean as a lifeguard, surfer, fisherman. I was not a good enough surfer to be a pro, which is what my brother did. I was a science nerd.
A mentor who had gone to the Yale School of Forestry said I should look up the Nicholas School of the Environment’s coastal environmental management program. I felt like this was built for me, this idea of this coastal program that was multidisciplinary. I just loved my time at Duke so much. The first year is your general environmental curriculum in Durham. The second year is ocean- and coastal-specific at the Marine Lab.
One of the fundamental premises of the Nicholas School was they were training students to be translators between science and policy work. You learn how to read scientific papers and understand how science works and you’re educated on the policy side of things.
One of the things I learned through my time at Surfrider is that there’s a third leg to that stool, which is the public. Surfrider prides itself on being a grassroots coastal and ocean conservation group. We form chapters in local communities, made up of locals who are super passionate about their place. They could be surfers, swimmers, beachgoers. There’s this idea of local wisdom, knowledge, passion and connection. What makes sense at Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina is going to be different from a beach in Oregon, a beach in Maine, a beach in Southern California.
I’ve been at Surfrider for 26 years – 30 if you count a summer 1995 internship – and it remains exciting and interesting. I have passion and reverence for the coast. I live about four blocks from the ocean. It’s a five-minute walk. It kind of depends on the surf and conditions, but I’m in the ocean all the time.