Dick “Mez” Meseroll
Dick “Mez” Meseroll was born in 1952 and raised in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, a beach town towards the northern part of the Jersey Shore, where a plethora of always-shifting sandbars gave birth to some of the state’s first, and best, surfers.
By 1971, Mez had happily taken up the mantle as head photographer for his buddies around Point Pleasant, and soon they were traveling up and down the East Coast chasing waves. Five years later, in 1976, Surfing Magazine put him on their masthead, paying for his film, developing and travel expenses — a huge, rare, accomplishment for an East Coast photographer at the time. Later, in 1984, Surfer put Mez on a full retainer, and he took full advantage, exploring then-unknown surf destinations like Nova Scotia, Cape Verde, and Easter Island. Closer to home, at Buxton Lighthouse on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Mez began documenting a young Floridian who seemed to have a preternatural sense for wave riding: Kelly Slater.
In the 80s, Mez relocated permanently to Central Florida to be at the heart of the East Coast surfing scene, and it was then that he started to become bothered by the lack of focus on East Coast surfers by the West Coast surf media. By 1991, he was fed up and launched, along with fellow East Coast surf photographer and good friend Tom Dugan, the soon-to-be-legendary — and dearly loved — Eastern Surf Magazine.
Over the next 26 years, ESM was the East Coast surfer’s Bible. “Although they gave every one of their newsprint issues away for free, every six weeks, until ceasing print publication in 2017,” former ESM Editor-in-Chief Matt Pruett wrote in Surfline, “Eastern Surf fulfilled a niche like no other, and was well respected, frequently sourced, and regularly recognized by international media outlets.” ESM’s impact on East Coast surfing is truly incalculable — Mez and Dugan, Pruett continued, “facilitated, if not fast-tracked, the careers of countless photographers, writers, editors, salespeople and designers, many of whom went on to become major players in the surf industry.”
Though ESM’s last print publication came in September of 2017, they continue to keep a finger on the pulse of East Coast surfing at easternsurf.com. For Mez, the ups and downs of the surf industry and media have only been cause for adaptation — he continues to travel and shoot today.
Mez was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 2006.
Photos by Nathan Adams, Michael Baytoff, Tom Dugan, Gamma, John Ker and Dick “Mez” Meseroll.
