My obsession with the ocean started early. I grew up exploring the rock pools scattered along the Victorian coastline and have been diving since I was 12 years old. But despite that early connection, my path to becoming a coral researcher was anything but a straight line. I took a massive detour. For a decade, my world consisted of cables, multi blend projection, soundboards, and lighting rigs as I built a career in the AV industry. Eventually, the pull of the ocean won out.