User:NicholasBehunin/sandbox

Nicholas Jon Behunin (born January 23, 1979) is an American surfer, environmentalist, and entrepreneur. His focus has been on real estate development, ocean conservation, coastal management, and free speech with an interest in using business to promote environmentalism.

Early Life
Behunin’s father was a contractor and Behunin grew up banging nails on job sites in Southern California. This led to Behunin’s interest in building things and eventually developed into a business background in Real Estate and Finance.

Behunin fell in love with the ocean in his teen’s and became obsessed with surfing. The combination of his love for surfing and his background in construction, real estate development, and finance drove Behunin’s desire and dreams to make waves both literally and figuratively.

Surfparks LLC 2002-2008
Behunin co-founded a company focused on developing wave pools called Surfparks LLC in 2002 with fellow founders Jamie Meiselman and Doug Kirk. The company entered and won Columbia Business Schools’ Outrageous Business Plan Competition procuring a $100,000 investment from the Lang Fund to help establish the world’s first artificial surfing facilities.

Even though Surfparks LLC successfully raised over $10 million in funding and secured a naming rights deal with surf retail giant Ron Jon’s Surfshop to build its pilot Surfpark facility in Orlando Florida the initiative was ultimately way before its time and largely a failure. Cost overruns related to early stage technology development and Florida’s extremely high water table created massive challenges that combined with the 2007-2008 financial crisis drove the project to a halt.

ASR Limited 2009-2012
Having had the opportunity to meet the scientists at New Zealand based coastal science company ASR Limited while working on developing the wave science related technology for Surfparks LLC Behunin became fascinated by their work in the ocean. With the capital markets for wave pool related real estate development dried up Behunin decided to shift his focus on making waves in the ocean through marine conservation and the design and construction of multi-purpose reefs.

With the goal of having a positive impact on how coastal and oceanic resources are managed Behunin partnered with the Schwab Family to acquire a controlling interest in ASR Limited and expand ASR’s philosophy of Understand. Innovate. Sustain. An initial focus was to promote the development of multi-purpose reefs as an alternative method of coastal protection that could generate better outcomes for communities from both an environmental and socio-economic perspective.

Behunin and fellow friend and surfer Chris Jensen who had previously co-founded Arbor a environmentally focused action sports lifestyle company spearheaded business development and marketing while the Schwab family used their wealth and connections to finance the company and help develop strategic partnerships including a partnership in Indonesia with the Suharto Family.

Recognizing that developing the technology and political clout to successfully build reefs around the world was going to be a costly and long-term undertaking the partnership (then operating as Sealutions LLC) created a 3 prong approach to the development of the organization. This included ASR Limited as a marine science and coastal management management company in addition to the creation of the Seathos Foundation which operated as a non-profit 501(c) focused on promoting education and awareness of the human impact on the ocean, and Seachange LLC a real estate development fund focused on environmentally responsible coastal development in Indonesia.

Seathos Foundation 2010-2016
Seathos originated from the understanding that the ocean needed a voice. Seathos Founders Nick Behunin, Michael Schwab, and Chris Jensen learned that educating people about the human impact on the ocean was mission critical to having an impact on how it was being managed from their time spent around the globe with both the public and private sectors.

Seathos was formed in 2010 and its first donor and ambassador was actress Julia Roberts who shortly thereafter promoted Seathos on the Oprah Winfrey Show through a give away of Seathos branded recycled plastic tote bags. Many more celebrity endorsements followed including Jeff Bridges, Brandon Boyd, Kelly Slater, Jack Johnson, and Eddie Vedder all united by the common cause of giving the ocean a voice.

Unfortunately the Seathos Foundation was a casualty of a falling out between the Schwab Family, Behunin, and Jensen that led to ongoing complex litigation in numerous courts beginning in 2012. As part of this fall out Michael Schwab sued the Seathos Foundation and forced Behunin and Jensen to shutdown the foundation in 2016.

Seachange LLC 2010-present
Seachange LLC was formed in 2010 as a real estate development fund focused on environmentally responsible coastal development in Indonesia by Behunin and the Schwab Family. The fund developed a partnership with the Suharto Family of Indonesia to pursue environmentally friendly real estate developments. This partnership and its related parties have been engaged in numerous lawsuits and spent millions of dollars in legal fees. The fight has been one reminiscent of a David and Goliath battle expect in this case Goliath has all but crushed David with the significant wealth and connections of the Schwab Family proving to be too much to contend with for Behunin.

Schwab Defamation and Copyright Lawsuits 2014-Present
As part of the ongoing battle with the Schwab’s Behunin created and published a website call “Chuck You”. The Schwab’s retaliated by filing lawsuits against Behunin for defamation and libel claiming the website was an attempt to exhort the Schwab’s into a settlement in another lawsuit. On the same day the Schwab Corporation filed a copyright lawsuit against Behunin in a federal court. Behunin asserts that he was exercising his right to free speech and the case is ongoing and being appealed to the California Supreme Court as of October 2020.