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- People On The Move - Cecil Lear
People On The Move - Cecil Lear
02/27/2011 - By Christine Burke Eskwitt
RIDING THE WAVES AT THE JERSEY SHORE SINCE 1962
It was New York, 1967, when Cecil Lear, a young advertising executive from New Jersey, and Rudy Huber, a jet-setting trust fund baby from Connecticut, got together to plan the creation of what would become the Eastern Surfing Association, the largest and longest lived amateur surfing association in the world. Forty years later, Lear is still active in ESA. Its 7,000 members are dedicated to the sport of amateur surfing, to the operation of amateur competitions, and to the establishment and preservation of free access to a clean shoreline and ocean environment.
Lear is a product of the Jersey Shore, a lifelong waterman who was turned on to surfing in his early 30s. Born in 1930, Lear grew up in Caldwell and summered in Belmar, where he now lives with his wife of over fifty years, Mary Lou. The property was bought by Lear’s grandfather in 1920 and his family moved there permanently in 1946.
“There were tents on the property way before I was born,” says Lear. “My family built a little bungalow and we moved here right after World War II. We learned to swim, clam, crab and fish.” Lear learned to body surf when he was ten and became a lifeguard during his junior year at Manasquan High School.
In 1948, Lear went to Drew University, majoring in economics. Then it was on to SH Cress and Co. before joining the Bendix Semiconductor Corporation in 1953.
“At Bendix, in 1961, we had salesmen from the West Coast come for training,” he recalls. “I got to talking to one and he asked me if I surfed. I said no, we don’t have surfboards where I live. So he sent me an issue of Surfer Magazine and when I saw that I couldn’t believe it. We used to watch newsreels about surfing in Australia and Hawaii, but we never had surfboards.” Lear and his lifeguard pals had tried to make one, “but it never really worked well.”
“I talked my wife into letting me get one,” he says. “I ordered it from Hobie for $125.00. It was the first one in the area.” It took Lear about two weeks to learn how to use the thing and then some of his lifeguard friends came home from a trip to Hawaii and set up a Hobie dealership.
“Me and about nine other guys formed the Jersey Surfing Association and they elected me president in 1962,” following which Lear and the crew proposed the creation of a purely surfing beach to the town. As a result, in 1963 Belmar became the Shore’s first beach to allow surfing. “We had to have our own little surf patrol but we were all lifeguards so we’d take turns watching the kids,” he says. “Surfers have always appreciated the support of Belmar and its town leaders.”
In 1969, Lear’s division at Bendix was sold and he was out of a job. Since he had gotten to know the publishers of Surfing Magazine well, he fell into a completely new career, becoming the Eastern Advertising Director for Surfing Magazine. The same company also published Auto Trend, Personal Pilot and Skin Diver. He later sold ads for larger magazines when Surfing folded in 1971.
“Beside the fact I liked surfing, it changed my whole career,” he says. “I can’t tell you how great it was to make money surfing and then to go into advertising. I was just at the right place at the right time and I have tried to give back to surfing because it has been so good to me.” Lear retired in 2002 from working for professional sports publications.
Lear was elected to the Surfing Hall of Fame in 1996, one of the first elected to this newly formed organization, located in Huntington Beach, California.
Once again, Lear is riding the waves as they come at him, as a volunteer for Surfers Healing (www.surfershealing.org). The organization was founded by famed surfer Israel Paskowitz and his wife Danielle, who discovered that the ocean was one place their autistic son, Isaiah, could find respite.
“Surfers Healing holds an annual surf camp in Belmar each September, and it is just so inspiring to see the transformation that surfing and the water can bring to autistic children,” says Lear. “Like so many things I’ve been lucky to be a part of, there are always great people who step up and help out. I am just thankful to be among them.”
STATS
FAVORITE RESTAURANTS
Bella Sogno, Bradley Beach Clementine’s Cafe, Avon
FAVORITE MUSICIAN
Bruce Springsteen
FAVORITE MOVIES
“The African Queen”
“The King’s Speech”
PET PEEVE
People who don’t listen
THREE PEOPLE YOU WOULD LIKE TO HAVE DINNER WITH
Bruce Springsteen, “Duke” Kahanamoku, and Nicole Kidman
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