Remembering Raymond Andreola

At sunset last night about 50 people paddled out on surfboards on the north side of the Casino Pier in Seaside Heights to say goodbye to Raymond Andreola while I was among a group standing on the beach watching what’s known as a surfer’s funeral. Andreola was a life-long surfer and windsurfer who died earlier this month in Maui, Hawaii only a month after being diagnosed with liver cancer at the age of 52.

When I moved from New York to Seaside Heights in 1967 Ray was one of the first people I would meet. We were 6th grade classmates in the old elementary school which ironically was right near the Casino Pier, behind the Aztec Motel. With only about 15 boys and girls in the class you got to know everyone pretty well and Ray and I became good friends. He gave me the nickname “Boss” because it was a New York expression to describe things that were cool and it was one not used in Seaside…at least not until I arrived. Throughout middle and high school were remained good friends, even though by now he was a devoted surfer while I chose sports like football. Like many of my friends Ray worked for my father on the boardwalk during the summer and we did a lot of the stupid things teen-agers do while growing up together.

After high school I did not see him very often but when we would bump into each other we usually would laugh about the great times we had growing up in Seaside playing touch football in the church lot, baseball behind the old Barnegat Ice Plant and even skim boarding in the spring when the water temperature was just reaching 50. Ray was a traveler who often only needed his surfboard and more than twenty years ago finally settled in Hawaii. We had lost touch until about four years ago when out of nowhere he sent me an email at the radio station. We caught up on old times and he sent me pictures of his wife Salvie and his then infant daughter Sara. Ray looked pretty much like the same teen-ager I remembered and I kidded him about how it was time to finally look his age. For the next couple of years were emailed each other on a fairly regular basis but had not communicated in a while when I got a phone call just over two weeks ago about his sudden passing….at least sudden to me.

Mike Columbo, who owns Right Coast Surf Shop in Seaside Park organized last night’s “paddle-out” which brought surfers and friends from all over and I saw some people I have not talked with in decades. For that I thank Ray…you where and always will be a “boss dude.” May you find the perfect wave!