As a young bodysurfer and kneeboarder in high school, Sam Hinton introduced me to a summer program for high school students interested in science.

In 1966 as a junior in high school, I was able to follow my dream and spend a summer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, working with Tom Clark and Ricky Grigg. Tom was a graduate student working on the ecology of  garibaldi. Ricky was a graduate student studying gorgonia and had just won the world surfing championship in Hawaii. Ricky taught me to surf at Blacks Beach. After that summer, I was hooked on science as a career!