Championing Our Coastal Treasures

It started out as a pair of college surfing buddies who hadn’t spoken in 30 years exploring an exotic surf adventure. The evening evolved into a twice-yearly “senior citizen surf tour” for Duane De Freese and Mike Ryan, traveling to some of the globe’s most-treasured surf spots. It’s a substantial part of De Freese’s lifelong affinity for the power of water. 

A trim man with a thatch of silver hair, at age 62, De Freese has never quite shaken the surfing bug. Growing up in East Rockaway, N.Y., a half-mile from the Atlantic, he spent his time surfing and fishing, reveling in the beach lifestyle. As a teenager he worked in a friend's garage learning the art of shaping, sanding and glassing a surfboard. After acquiring a degree in zoology from the University of Rhode Island, De Freese packed his bags and headed down to Melbourne with its nearby beaches and earned a graduate degree and Ph. D. in marine biology at the Florida Institute of Technology. 

For more than three decades De Freese has been one of the key Florida voices championing the economic and environmental values associated with common-sense ocean and coastal conservation.