Jersey Shore Magazine

j e r s e y s h o r e • S p r i n g 2 0 1 8 7 and paddle out into the water," Luthringer explained. "By the time it was eight o'clock, I was surfing professionally the rest of the day pro- moting surfboards for Custom Surf Shop." The following year, Luthringer was the number-one ranked surfer in New Jersey, which comes as no surprise to Hale. "Rich was and still is one of the greatest surfers to ever come out of this area," Hale said. Luthringer learned how to craft surf- boards shortly after and eventually started his own company called Toad Surfboards, named after his longtime friend, Doug Nagel, who succumbed to cancer at eighteen-years-old. A series of events in Luthringer's young adulthood, including a near-fatal automobile accident and the theft of a number of his boards, led to the sale of Toad Surfboards to an associate, and then to an educa- tion at Pratt Institute and a success- ful career as an architect. Neither the salt water nor his pas- sion for crafting surfboards, however, ever left Luthringer's veins. He still creates several custom surfboards a year in his garage and shed, and he's still an elite wave rider. The early 1970s brought swift and radical changes to the sport of surfing, with shorter, lighter boards replacing the iconic longboards and "shredding" replacing "drop-knee turning" and "hanging ten." As design of surfboards evolved, accom- plished noseriders like Hale and Luthringer held onto the longboard- ing form amid scrutiny from many fellow surfers, friend and foe alike. However, it was a classic longboard that brought these two acquaintances together as friends. Hale's story goes like this: "I remember one day, it was somewhere around the summer of '76 or '77, I was on the beach with Suzan, whom I was eventually lucky enough to marry. I see this guy out in the water and I said, 'Man, that really looks like Rich Luthringer out there,'" Hale said. "At that time, almost nobody had a longboard anymore here on continued on page 8 The Luthringer 11' 1/4" Reverse Rocker Custom Noserider Longboard, designed and built by Rich Luthringer, hangs in the atrium of the new One Ocean Boulevard condominium building in Seaside Heights. Jill Ocone Longboarder John Hale drop-knee turning his 11' Luthringer noserider on New Year's Day at Porter Avenue beach in Seaside Heights. The board he's riding is very similar in design to the display board at One Ocean Boulevard. Morgan Fitzpatrick the East Coast, and nobody rode that way anymore either. His form really captured my attention. This was a really accomplished, classic long- boarder who was masterfully stalling, cross-stepping, and trimming on the nose in a style that was completely different for that era."

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