Evan Orellana

Founder, Delray Surf Club

Surfrider Foundation Regional Director for Florida and Puerto Rico

Marine biologist and conservationist

THEN: For 12 straight years, Evan Orellana was a fixture on a beach somewhere in Florida, his longboard in tow, waiting to catch the next wave. But it wasn’t always that way; Orellana grew up about as far away from the beach as you can get in Broward County. Although he knew from an early age that he wanted to be a marine biologist, Orellana remained a weekend surfer until he attended Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Oceanographic Institute, where he met a roommate who helped him make surfing a part of his daily routine. “Just being in the water is special,” he says. “You’re embracing a force of nature. It’s a whole other feeling.” An advocacy for the ocean and marine life led Orellana, who volunteered at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center in Boca and later became a part-time sea turtle biologist, to a career in environmental conservation and education. He was an education coordinator at Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach and spent nine years as the director of education at the Sandoway Discovery Center in Delray Beach.

NOW: The Florida and Puerto Rico regional manager for the Surfrider Foundation, a national nonprofit group founded by surfers and focused on ocean-, wave- and beach-conservation, Orellana remains a driving force behind the Delray Surf Club, an organization he founded six years ago with the idea of keeping the area’s surfing community strong. Mostly a social organization, the club hosts movie nights, featuring surfing films and often a few boxes of pizza, as well as other gatherings including beach cleanups. The club also hosts two big events: a surfing competition in Jupiter and its “Surf Swap,” featuring surfer-vendors for music and a surfboard swap. “Our goal is to bring surfing back to what it used to be,” Orellana said.