Mike Angiulo
“Almost semi-famous,” is how Mike Angiulo refers to himself. “I am pretty sure that not a lot of people know my name or who I am.” Angiulo was a competent surfer who has a resume of adventurous surf travel, but his contributions were largely accomplished on land. Angiulo started surfing on Long Island in 1964 at 13 years old. In 1980, fresh out of California Western Law School in San Diego, he re-located back to New York, when he offered to lend a hand to the director of the New York District of the Eastern Surfing Association. Three days later several cardboard boxes were left at his back door with a note wishing me luck and in short notice he had the first of hundreds of phone calls with the late Colin “Doc” Couture, the ESA Executive Director. In short order, Angiulo had agreed to become the first volunteer attorney for the ESA with the title, General Counsel.
Angiulo contributed significantly during the ESA’s formative and growth years and remained in that position for 30 years until 2015. In the 1980s he worked on beach access issues up and down the East Coast on behalf of the ESA. Angiulo appeared before City Councils and state agencies in New York, North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina and Florida to advocate for the rights of surfers to use their local beaches and ride their local waves. He was co-counsel for two surfers ticketed for illegal surfing at the West End jetty at Jones Beach, Long Island, a legal case that went up on appeal to the Appellate Term court in NY based on the argument that surfers were being discriminated against by NY State. While the appeals court did not agree with the ESA’s position, within six months the state agreed to allow surfing at the jetty. During this time, he also had the privilege to represent amateur surfing before the U.S. Olympic Committee and met with a few Olympic officials on behalf of the ESA and the U.S. Surfing Federation, when the Olympics was only a dream. Angiulo wrote the ESA By Laws, which established the legal structure, administrative regulations and voting rules for the Association.
In the aftermath of the sudden passing of Doc Couture in 1989, Angiulo assisted with the transition of the position of ESA Executor Director to Kathy Phillips. In 1987 Surfing Magazine named him as one of the “50 Surfers Who Are Changing Our Sport.” Soon after, Angiulo became the General Counsel to the United States Surfing Federation (USSF), and then it’s first Executive Director. During this period, he successfully steered the USSF through a massive lawsuit brought by a disgruntled contest promoter. In 1996, under the USSF banner and Angiulo’s watchful eye, the USA Surf Team won the Team Gold Medal at the ISA World Surfing Games at Huntington Beach. That was followed up by the ambitious Surfing 2000 Conference that brought together many of the sport and industry’s leaders to attempt to create a unified front in the surfing world to push competitive surfing forward. Angiulo’s term as Executive Director ended in 1998, but he continued working with the ESA until 2015 to make sure the Association would carry on the legacy of Cecil Lear, Doc Couture, Kathy Phillips and the dedicated people who made the ESA work, representing surfers up and down the East Coast. In 1999 Angiulo was selected to receive the Colin J. Couture Award (“The Doc”) for service to Eastern Surfing. Angiulo still surfs and is having more fun than ever watching his three-year old granddaughter do her own little pop-up, styling in her “surfer stance” like a ballet dancer and giving him the best reason ever to get wet.
Photos by Dick “Mez Meseroll and courtesy Mike Anguilo
Video contributions by Bob Bolen, Michael Baytoff, Richard Bernardi, Bruce Chrisner, Jon Coen, Eastern Surf Magazine, Donald Cresitello, Tom Dugan, Vdon Farias, Ryan Gamma, Norm Grosskruetz, Ray Hallgreen, Carlos Hernandez, Pete Hodgson, Darrell Jones, Jon Ker, Nicola Lugo, Matt Lusk, Kem McNair, Dick “Mez” Meseroll, Eric Olsen, Larry Pope, Tony Prince, Dan Przygocki, Barry Schulz, Joanne O’Shaughnessy, Jon Steele, Mike Vuocolo, and Chris Wilson.
