Welcome to New Jersey By: Rich Bean
New Jersey has an interesting cultural blend of surf and skate near the beaches, farmers and rednecks inland, and thick-accented, overly perfumed “guidos” to the north. These people all converge onto the twenty miles of New Jersey coastline Memorial Day through Labor Day. This time frame provides income to the beach communities and a raging party scene for anyone looking to distract themselves from the summer doldrums. Games of chance line the boardwalks with tourists voraciously sucking down greasy pizza and sugar coated funnel cakes. As the tourism season transitions after Labor Day, our beaches return, the smell of Aqua di Gio leaves the air. While bodyboarders reside throughout the coastal towns of New Jersey, there are two specific breaks that offer the ramping, hollow waves that excite bodyboarders and thereby producing some of the best talent from the East Coast. These breaks gave birth to professional bodyboarders Ty Torres, Seth Stafford, Chuck Guarino and Larry Mcginn. Ty and Seth led the way with Chuck and Larry quickly following. While they were making their yearly pilgrimage to Hawaii and traveling to exotic locales in search of perfect surf, a small core of riders began to develop, establishing the foundation of New Jersey’s bodyboarding scene today. The current crew consists of mostly prone riders like Chris Schlegel, Mike Murphy and Jason Bitzer. All three are well-seasoned professional bodyboarders that have traveled the globe. Following closely on their heels is Pat Perkins, John Mangini, the Tighe brothers, Graham Chapman and Ryan Marsh. All of them are from the same bodyboarding-talent rich areas as their predecessors. Like those before them, they have begun to seek out sponsorship deals, compete in USBA events and make the necessary journey to Hawaii and Mexico to hone their big-wave riding abilities. These are obviously not the only riders in New Jersey. There is a long list of underground riders, too many to mention, who continue to push each other and the next generation into the future.