Mainland Regional surf team hits the water
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
LINWOOD — On a crisp, cool morning at the northern end of Atlantic City, Richard Sless and his 30 or so charges gather on the beach for practice in the fine art of riding waves on a fiberglass board.
Known as Crystal, the spot is located at the end of New Hampshire Avenue between two rock groins that shield the waves from the wind and current and help them gather strength as they approach the shore. Surfers young and old congregate there to enjoy their sport and the camaraderie.
“These iconic spots have names to them — Chicken Bone Beach, the Gas Chamber at States Avenue, Gospel Hall in Longport. Crystal is the most wonderful place on the island,” Sless said. “Anything that is north and east of the T-jetty blocks the wind and the current. It’s a great wave protector for the kids.”
“You have wind protection and current protection, so the swell can form instead of just pulling you down the beach,” assistant coach JJ Booth said. “That’s the nice thing about this spot.”
Surfing is a sport unlike any other because the playing field is constantly changing and greatly dependent on weather as conditions are affected by wind, tide, moon cycle and time of year. Some of the best waves are generated by nor’easters, tropical storms and hurricanes.
What began as a rite of passage and religious observance in Polynesia now is enjoyed worldwide, especially in places such as Hawaii and Australia where the conditions are the most favorable. It’s even made its way into the Olympic Games and, more recently, high school athletics.
Varsity sports offered at Mainland Regional High School include all of the usual suspects — football, baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, swimming — as well as surfing, but only at schools along the coast, of course.
Sless said about 30 high schools around the state have teams but only three — Mainland, Ocean City High School and Manasquan High School in Monmouth County — offer it as a varsity sport.
The MRHS Surf Club has been in existence since about 1977 and was coached by beloved former Mainland teacher John Shields from about 1983 to 2006.
According to Sless, the club was then inactive for six years until a group of parents worked to restart it. At that time, Sless became the club adviser and by fall 2013 it was running again successfully.
During the 2017-18 school year, the MRHS Surf Club became the MRHS Surf Team, thus making surfing a varsity sport at Mainland.
During the past eight years, the team has placed as high as second at the National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) Northeast Championships.
“Our best individual surfer was Pat Taylor, who won the state men’s championship in 2017,” Sless said.
Coach Richard Sless
A 40-year member of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol, Sless began surfing in 1969 off the Margate Pier.
He had an early run-in with some old-school legends of the sport when, in 1983, he received a call from Dude Mclaughlin asking if he could house a couple of surfers at his parents’ house in Margate during an Ocean Pacific-sponsored pro event in Atlantic City.
“Of course, I said ‘yes’ and Dude came over with 1977 world champion Shaun Tomson and Kingsley ‘The Hook’ Looker,” Sless said. “These great surfers put me on the path that I am still on 37 years later.”
As a member of the ACBP, Sless created the ACBP Longboard Surfing Classic, which ran for 20 consecutive summers from 1990 to 2009.
“We had a full summer window and waited for the largest, clean, ridable day — small heats, big waves, judges in lifeguard stands at the water’s edge. This event showcased the greatest longboarders on Absecon Island,” Sless said.
Sless was involved with the NSSA from 1983–98 and then again from 2013 to present.
“In the earlier years, I was a judge, head judge, contest director and later served as NSSA Northeast Conference co-director with Joe Keenan. We were proud of the fact that we had contests in many, many different surf spots from New Jersey to New Hampshire, including Strathmere, Margate, LBI, Cape Cod, Rhode Island and Hampton Beach,” Sless said. “We participated in contests with other NSSA conferences but enjoyed taking trips to cool places such as Mutunick, R.I., Nauset State Beach, Mass., Rye on the Rocks, N.H., and a host of others.”
During the 1980s through the early 2000s, Sless was a surf photographer.
“I befriended Larry ‘Flame’ Moore from Surfing Magazine who was a big inspiration to me. I was printed in color and B&W in quite a few magazines and had the cover shot for a New Jersey state calendar. Local surf photographers Mike Baytoff and Doug Gotthold also provided plenty of inspiration,” he said.
After his career on the ACBP, he gave surf lessons for The Jersey Devil Surf Shop in Atlantic City, owned by local surf legend Dean “The Jersey Devil” Randazzo and his brother Joe Randazzo, during the summers of 2013 and 2014.
Sless continued providing lessons during the summers of 2015 and 2016 at the Atlantic City Surf School with Tom Forkin and continued working as a lifeguard at the William Morrow Beach in Somers Point until 2019.
Sless has had a long career on the beaches of southern New Jersey but said the highlight has been coaching the MRHS Surf Team.
“I’m a teacher of surfing, swimming, math, science, rowing, Tae Kwon Do, etc. — I live to impart wisdom and history on our youth,” he said.
Surf parent Lauren Gillman of Northfield said the team is lucky to have such a great coach in Sless.
“The heart he has for being a coach, it’s amazing,” she said. “He has heart and he teaches the kids about the waves, about the currents, always protecting them — there are no words for how amazing he is. He puts his heart and soul into it.”
MRHS Surf Team 2020
“We have a great team this year,” Sless said, noting that it’s a young group. “We have 30 kids on our roster and only eight juniors and seniors. They are pretty good surfers.”
“There are definitely more kids on the team than ever,” surf parent Rocky Tedeschi said.
The team captains this year are Anthony Tedeschi and Harrison Gillman, both seniors from Northfield. Team managers are seniors Hannah Levy and Maddie Lynskey and sophomore Colbee Obermeyer.
Sless said the team has a lot of girls this year.
“We have a great batch of freshmen and sophomores and we have seven or eight wonderful young ladies who are really doing well,” Sless said, adding that he is considering organizing a girls-only contest.
Gillman said being on the surf team is his favorite part of high school.
“It’s so fun, such a good energy. The people are nice, the coach is super nice,” he said. “You’re surfing, doing what you love, having fun — good people, good energy.”
He said when the team first got together over the summer “everyone seemed a little distant. No one really knew one another. But once everyone started meeting each other and becoming friends, everyone grew as a team – it’s like a little big family.”
He said he tries his best to mentor his younger teammates because “that’s what it was like when I was a freshman. I always had the seniors teaching me the little tricks on how to get out on the bigger days or where to sit, the best waves to take off on. I just try to spread that off to the younger guys and girls — bigger groms, I guess you could call them. They really seem to be enjoying it, a lot of them have improved so much throughout the summer.”
Tedeschi said he tries to make sure the younger surfers are comfortable when they are out in the ocean.
“I look out for them and if they are surfing well, then I will take them under my wing,” he said. “That’s kind of cool, getting them happy about surfing.”
He said it brings back the feeling of when he was on the team as a freshman.
“Being out there, just starting out on surf team, is a little weird. I try to take that weird feeling away and tell them that it’s just all right to have fun when you are surfing,” he said, adding that his favorite part of being on the team is “being around the surf community.”
“You get to see surfers from other schools and it’s super cool,” he said.
Hanna Thulin, a senior from Northfield, said she likes being part of the team.
“Everyone is just kind of chill. They accept you no matter what. It’s not like every other team — there is not favoritism, there is no bias,” Thulin said.
Michelle Costello and her husband, Steve Costello, said the team has embraced their special-needs son Joey.
“The team loves Joey — he is high-functioning ADHD — they take him on just like anybody else, they teach him, they help him, they make him part of the team. The camaraderie is unbelievable,” she said, noting that Sless began teaching him in 2014 through Jersey Devil Surf Shop. “So it’s a complete circle for us, it’s like family.”
Sport fun for parents, too
Instead of sitting on the bleachers in a noisy gym or alongside a playing field, surf team supporters — both parents and fans — get to enjoy the soothing sights and sounds of the sea and smell of the salty air.
Costello said having a son on the surf team gets her and her husband out on the beach early in the morning, regardless of weather.
“Even when it’s not beautiful we’re out here,” she said. “We follow the team everywhere. We just love it.”
The parents also get to share the experience with their children.
“It’s great because I’m a surfer myself and it’s something that we definitely bonded over since he was like 10 and then through his years of high school. It’s been great coming out here,” 1993 MRHS graduate Rocky Tedeschi said of his son, senior co-captain Anthony Tedeschi.
The elder Tedeschi said he and other parents spend every weekend on the beach during surf season, which lasts from August to October, ending with the NSSA competition.
The surf team gives youths who are not interested in the usual competitive sports an outlet for their athleticism.
“I’m happy for him because I was told surfing wasn’t a sport and I had to do something else,” said Paul Koelling of Somers Point, father of freshman Nicholas Koelling. “He’s really excited — stoked as they say — and happy to have Mr. Sless and JJ Booth out here.”
Koelling’s wife, Alaine Cusick, was on the team in the late 1980s when having girls was a novelty and they could score points just by showing up. She said she enjoys getting out on the beach again.
“I love it. It’s beautiful out here,” she said, admitting she is a beach girl.
Lauren Gillman said she loves the atmosphere.
“It’s great. It’s such a pleasure to watch — it’s peaceful. They go out there and do their thing,” she said, adding that she grew up in Margate watching surfers. “It’s enjoyable, like a big family with everyone rooting for each other.”
Scoring and schedule
Surfers compete in heats with a maximum of seven competitors — four or five is preferable, Sless said — with about half advancing to the next heat.
“They are judged on their ability to do radical surf maneuvers but it must be controlled and show style,” Sless said. “You can’t just flip your board around like a kook. They must complete their maneuvers and they must do off-the-top maneuvers with the board or look for a tube that they can tuck inside of and get out.”
Sless said aerials are a relatively new maneuver in surfing but still must be controlled and landed to score point. Perhaps showing his age, he said he prefers to keep his board in the water.
“Old-school me says surfing is done on the wave, not in the air, at least competitive surfing,” he said.
Catching a bigger wave scores more points for the individual and team, and surfers are penalized if they interfere with each other.
Due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has just four competitions on the calendar this year and it’s unclear whether the championship will be held.
MRHS has two meets at “home” — Granville Avenue beach in Margate — on Sept. 29 and Oct. 1 and two against OCHS on Oct. 6 and 8 at Fifth Street in Ocean City. Sless said since both schools have large rosters there would be both junior varsity and varsity competitions.
Sless said the team also has organized an alumni event for Oct. 4 with MRHS students from the mid- to late 1980s who, like this writer who went to school with them, have entered the half-century club. He said Dean Randazzo, Adam Walcoff, Frank Levine, Anthony Christopher and some younger surfers would be competing against nine members of the current team at Crystal in Atlantic City.
