Nicole Gaines

Vice President/Treasurer

Nicole grew up surfing the beaches of Southern California, where a deep connection to the ocean shaped her environmental awareness from an early age. As a young environmental advocate, she received a Wavemaker Grant from Oceana, which funded her first semester of university, for developing and teaching a curriculum on runoff water pollution that highlighted the ecological interconnectedness between inland cities and the ocean.

Nicole went on to become a psychotherapist, practicing for fifteen years, when, after moving to Biarritz, France, with her husband in 2017, she felt called back to her original passion for environmental science.

Over the past two years, Nicole has been deeply engaged in research, interviews, and collaboration with local stakeholders across the Basque Country, working to understand and address regional environmental challenges such as Ostreopsis (toxic algae blooms) and coastal litter, with a particular focus on youth engagement and education. She met A Liquid Future’s founder, Lizzie, at the 2025 UNOC and immediately saw how the Surfer Scientists initiative could benefit the Basque Coast.