He was a surf star who turned his love of the ocean into a long academic career.

Pioneering big-wave surfer and renowned University of Hawaii oceanographer Richard W. "Rick" Grigg died Wednesday at his home in Waialae Iki, his family confirmed. He was 77.

A throat cancer survivor, he died from complications of pneumonia.

Grigg, born in California, began surfing at age 9 when mentor Buzzy Trent gave him a tandem ride.

Grigg graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1954 and won the first Catalina to Manhattan Beach Paddleboard Race a year later.

He earned a master’s degree in zoology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, spending quite a bit of time surfing at Sunset Beach.

In 1966, while working on a doctorate at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., he flew to Oahu to compete in the Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship at Sunset.

He won the contest handily in waves of 12 to 18 feet.

"He really did well," recalled his friend Peter V.Z. Cole, a 2011 inductee to the Hawaii Waterman Hall of Fame and titleholder of the 1958 Makaha International Surfing Championship. "He just dominated the contest."

Cole said Grigg was an accomplished waterman able to free-dive to 100 feet. Grigg also was an aquanaut with the 1965 Navy project SEALAB II, spending 15 days at a depth of 205 feet.

"He was a kind of Renaissance man," Cole said. "He was a very talented writer and researcher and innovative and creative in his research."

Grigg was also far-seeing, helping to launch research trips to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands in the 1970s, recalled University of Hawaii researcher Steven Dollar, Grigg’s first graduate student.

Dollar said the research Grigg conducted helped to establish baseline information and also led to eventually recognizing the area as a marine national monument.

"A lot of good research has come out of it," Dollar said.

Dollar said Grigg’s research helped in the establishment of a sustainable black coral industry. For his discovery and studies of black coral, he was honored with the naming of a species unique to Hawaii, known as Antipathes griggi.

He spent his life researching the Hawaiian archipelago from Loihi Seamount, a submarine volcano off Hawaii island, through the Hawaiian-Emperor chain.

As each island moves northwest with the Pacific plate, it begins to drown at what Grigg defined as the Darwin Point.

Grigg is survived by his wife, Maria; daughters Romy and Raina, and Carol Allen; stepson Mark Monroe and stepdaughter Juliana Chaize; and three grandsons.

A celebration of life will be held at the Outrigger Canoe Club on a date to be announced. The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Grigg’s honor to the Reef Check Program at www.reefcheck.org.