Salisbury learned to surf during high school, and was soon trading design work for gear: he created logos for Gordon and Smith, Hannon, and Birdwell Beach Britches. Salisbury became friends with fellow surfer-artists Rick Griffin and designer John Van Hammersveld, and all three went on to work at SURFER in the early '60s, with the slender, handsome, quiet-voiced Salisbury becoming the magazine's art director by the end of 1962.