Pratte, Tom (1948 – 1994)

Soft-spoken but hard-charging environmentalist from Huntington Beach, California; the original executive director of the Surfrider Foundation; often described as the "father of surf environmentalism." Pratte was born in 1948, began surfing in the early '60s, and graduated from Humboldt State University with a B.S. in a self-designed program called coastal studies. In the early '70s he took a nonpaying job as the environmental director of the Western Surfing Association, a competition group. I...