Skudin Surf

Learn the waves the Skudin way

Skudin Surf Camps will be open for all who enjoy the water this summer. Beginners or those at higher levels are all welcome to come to the sand and the surf. Professionals will be on hand to guide swimmers and surfers throughout the summer season. Certified lifeguards will be one hand, as well as people trained in first aid. Precautions will be taken to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, with small groups assembling for all lessons. Social distancing will also be observed.

Skudin Surf's owership is certain swimmers will enjoy this summer season, whether they are new to the surf or have been taking plunges into the water for years.

Visit www.skudinsurf.com or call (516) 318-3993 for more information.

Herald File Photo Above Photo: Skudin Surf instructor Ian Skudin teaching eager learners the way of the waves before jumping in.

WEEKLY CAMP RATES • PRIVATE & SEMI PRIVATE LESSONS

NICK ORICCHIO

At 80, still buzzing and clipping

By Brendan Carpenter

Over the decades, hairstyles have changed — from crew cuts to fl at tops to locks that hung down to the shoulders, and even lower. But through it all, the barber behind the chair at Majestic Barber Shop, on Park Avenue, has remained the same. Nick Oricchio, now 80, has been cutting hair, trimming moustaches and clipping beards in Long Beach for 60 years and, he said last week, his barbering days are nowhere near over. “I’ve gotten a lot of new customers over the years,” Oricchio said. “I have the best customers in the world. Why? Because I treat them with respect. Sometimes you succeed with people and sometimes you don’t, but I don’t take anything for granted.” His skill with scissors and combs dates to his youth in Salerno, Italy, where he was raised. After school, other kids would play and wrestle, but young Nick wanted none of that. His father, a carpenter, told him to “pick up what you want to do for the rest of your life.” He decided he wanted to be a barber. Oricchio left Naples on a ship called the Christopher Columbus on May 25, 1962, and

arrived in Long Beach 10 days later. A month after that, he got a job at Majestic. The shop has been in Long Beach for nearly 100 years, opening in 1925, where Bank of America now stands next to the train station. It took Oricchio a while to learn English, but taking night classes at Nassau Community College, he eventually got the hang of the new language. Nine months after he was hired, a young man named Antonio Gonzalez came to work at Majestic. Oricchio and Gonzalez worked alongside each other for 20 years before buying the shop together in 1982. Since then the business has moved twice, fi rst to where the restaurant Brixx and Barley is now, and then, in 2004, to its current spot, across Park Avenue from City Hall. Gonzalez died of a brain aneurism in 2005. Since then, Oricchio has been the shop’s sole owner. “We worked together for 42 years,” he said. “We never had an argument.” Oricchio has seen all kinds of heads over the decades. He has cut the hair of many, including former U.S. Sen. Al D’Amato and Guy James Mangano, a former state assemblyman and senator and State Supreme Court justice.

Brendan Carpenter/Herald “Nick the Barber” has been cutting hair in Long Beach since 1962.