Spicy South Jersey
Atlantic City Madness With Andrew Gesler
by Zach Weisberg

My buddy joked me the other day that this trip has been more of a regional cuisine tour than a surf trip. I can’t wholly agree with that, but I do think it’s true that food provides one of the most succinct representations of a place.

Take for instance pork roll.

We woke up at Andrew Gesler’s house in Ocean City, New Jersey and Andrew had already stopped by his local grubbery and gotten us two pork roll, egg, and cheese sandwiches on Kaiser rolls.

“This is a no-bullshit sandwich," says Gesler. "It’s covered in butter and full of calories, but that’s what you need surfing in the cold up here. You don’t mess with a pork roll sandwich – it’s the real deal.”

And so is South Jersey. There is a lot going on here. From the shiny diamond earrings and crystal-gelled hair in the Atlantic City casinos to the core Ocean City crew that braves sub-freezing temperatures year-round in one of the lesser-exposed but equally wave-rich areas in America – things can get complicated here. That’s why guys like Andrew Gesler keep things in perspective.

“It’s no bullshit,” says Gesler. “It’s firing and it’s freezing cold – we’re out there and we’re going to be taking advantage of it.”

Not to mention the horde of groms coming up in the area like Rob and Chris Kelly and the sixty surfers on Ocean City’s High School Surf Team, which has won the last eight state titles in a row.

“The surf team is huge at Ocean City High School,” says OCHS senior, Chris Kelly. “It’s like the football team except more intimidating.”

How exactly a band of rubber people with shaggy hair is more intimidating than a block of helmets and aggression, I’m not sure, but I do understand that Ocean City takes their surfing seriously, and local pros like Andrew Gesler want to set an example for a generation to come.

“We try to pave the right path for kids coming up, “ says Gesler. “The more we can do and the more respect we can get for our community – they better off they’ll be getting into it. Guys like Rob Kelly and Zach Humphries have a clear path that their parents can get behind, because guys like Dean Randazzo and Sam and Matt Keenan have showed us the way. And as the second wave comes through he community will grow stronger.”

On that note we picked up Chris Kelly from Ocean City High School, checked the waves, and Atlantic City’s casino district before hopping into some mighty frigid water – especially after surfing Florida in trunks just a few days ago.

That night we had a bonfire at videographer, Alex Dephillipo’s house with the local crew including Zach Humphries and Atlantic City HS groms before hitting the town in Atlantic City.

All I can say about that is that people take their partying seriously in AC.

The next morning we said our goodbyes to the Gesler family and his mom sent us off with a plateful of pumpkin muffins.

Spicy and sweet – just like South Jersey.

- Zach Weisberg
Online Editor

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