Written by
Greg Latshaw
OCEAN CITY -- Before prosecutor Richard Brueckner puts on his suit and enters the Wicomico County courtroom, he's out on the water, wearing his wet suit.
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Richard Brueckner, left, and Wicomico State's Attorney Matt Maciarello pose with their surf boards/ LAURA EMMONS/THE DAILY TIMES |
Brueckner, the safe streets prosecutor for the State's Attorney's Office, rises early to surf at Assateague Island. Hours later, he trades his board for a legal pad, taking on cases that put drug dealers and gun offenders behind bars.
Brueckner's not alone -- he's one of many lawyers who surf the waters near Ocean City. The activity brings together attorneys who may spar in court, but are friends when their boards dip into the water.
"You're sort of in a communion with nature," Brueckner said. "When you see all the surfers on boards, waiting for the surf, that's called the 'lineup.' We're talking to each other. The sun is coming up, the dolphins are going by."
Riding the waves is also a popular pastime for professionals such as accountants and doctors. But peers in those fields don't have the fierce rivalry of the bar. In court, duty calls a defense attorney and prosecutor to pick apart each other's cases.
But at the beach, saltwater melts away animosity. The surfboard breaks down barriers and builds friendships.
From boards to the board room
Long before Matt Maciarello was the Wicomico County State's Attorney, he was a Dover kid yearning for the waves.His first job was at Endless Summer Surf Shop in Ocean City. He fixed broken surfboards, which figures, in a way, because Maciarello's first board was a beat-up, finless 1968 Dewey Weber.
"It's the modern board meeting," Maciarello joked.
On a given Saturday morning, defense attorneys, prosecutors and public defenders will be in the water together. At one point, Wicomico County District Court Judge L. Bruce Wade surfed, but he doesn't anymore.
Salisbury attorney Bruce Anderson said surfing brings people together. Anderson, 57, began surfing about 15 years ago as a way to get closer to his son, a surfer who travels around the world for waves. Now Anderson is part of a loose-knit group called the 62nd Street Longboarding Club, which brings together many older lawyers who surf off the street of the same name in Ocean City.
"I always say out there, 'It's not the guy who's the best surfer, it's the guy having the most fun,' " Anderson said.
Surfers turned lawyers
Greg Coburn, a defense attorney with an Ocean City practice, said he's been surfing since the summer of 1967, long before he became a lawyer. Once, Coburn lived in Hawaii for eight months, catching the big waves by day and working as a bartender by night.
Coburn, now 64, remembers his time in the Pacific fondly.
"We had it made. We had good jobs, were young and surfed," Coburn said.
Coburn said it was fellow Ocean City attorney Richard Parolski who introduced him to surfing. When they were younger, the two worked as seasonal police officers in Ocean City, an experience that gave them a chance to hide their boards under a hotel and surf the waves off Eighth Street.
"I surfed long before I was a lawyer. If you like it, you keep doing it," Coburn said.
He tries to surf several times a week on his longboard. When he's in the water, he said it doesn't matter if the person is a prosecutor or a defense attorney, just as long as they don't drop in on his wave.
"They may be defense attorneys, but if they surf, they're OK with us," Brueckner said.
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