VERONICA YANKOWSKI Richard Handschuch (l) and Sal Marino walk the promenade on the Long Branch boardwalk, which is included in the 60-page guide Boardwalks of the Jersey Shore.

They began as a practical way for turn-of-the-century tourists to stroll along Jersey beaches and became an integral part of the Shore scene, according to two modern-day boardwalk historians.

"They are uniquely New Jersey," said Richard Handschuch.

"There are some in other places, but when you think of boardwalks, you think of the Shore and Atlantic City," added Sal Marino.

Marino and Handschuch are authors of The Beach Bum’s Guide to the Boardwalks of New Jersey, a celebration of "the boards" and the unique role they have played in Jersey Shore history.

The 60-page guide published in 2000 by Beach Bum Press, Beach Haven, takes readers on a tour of boardwalks, walks and promenades along the Jersey Coast from Perth Amboy to Cape May.

"The book has been a success, and there’s a revival each spring," said Marino who, along with his co-author, has walked the planks of Shore boardwalks since childhood.

"I’ve spent every summer of my life at the Shore," said Handschuch of Seaside Park, who began spending summers there as a toddler in 1937. "I even met my wife on the boardwalk," added Handschuch, who was an educator for 37 years in Brick Township, before retiring five years ago.

Marino of Point Pleasant Beach was a frequent visitor to Keansburg as a child and began spending summers at the Shore with his family in 1946.

"Back then I thought boardwalks were only in Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights," remarked Marino, who met Handschuch when he began a 35-year teaching career. The two taught together as a team and remained in touch after Marino took early retirement in 1994.

That collaboration is reflected in the good-natured kibitzing that goes on during book signings like the one held last week at the Monmouth Beach Cultural Center.

Following retirement, Marino began walking the boards every morning with his wife. When Handschuch retired in 1997, he suggested he and his former colleague continue the tradition but extend it to all the boardwalks along the shore.

"I said, ‘Great. How many are there?’ " Marino said.

When they began their research, they found there was no compilation on boardwalks.

"We went to the library, but there were no books on the boardwalks," Handschuch explained. "The librarians asked us to keep notes."

They found there are 28 boardwalks, walks or promenades along the shore, and they range in size from 200 feet in Sea Bright to the longest, Atlantic City’s 5-mile Boardwalk.

Marino and Handschuch began their boardwalk odyssey along Raritan Bay in 1998, documenting every boardwalk or walk (even those no longer in place) from Perth Amboy to Cape May. In the process, they walked about 125 miles of Jersey coast.

Boardwalks of New Jersey includes the boardwalks of the Bayshore because, although no longer in existence, they had a significant history, they explained.

"We felt the Raritan Bay area had a lot of boardwalks being used at the turn of the century," said Handschuch.

"Cliffwood Beach had dance halls on the boardwalk, and boats used to bring people down for Saturday night," Marino added. "Now Keansburg, Laurence Harbor and Cliffwood no longer have them."

"We worked our way south to Cape May," added Handschuch. "It took us about a year. We walked weekly during off-season, mostly in the winter, so we didn’t have to worry parking or crowds."

"We encourage people to use the boardwalks in the off-season," added Marino. "In the summer it gets really jammed, but we found the boardwalk is used by a lot of people in the off-season."

According to Boardwalks of New Jersey, the Shore’s sleepy little hamlets were mostly frequented by fishermen and clammers in the early 1800s until the railroads came to the Shore around mid-century, bringing tourists from Philadelphia, New York and Newark all the way to Absecon Beach (now Atlantic City).

The increase in tourists coming to stroll the beaches caused a problem — sand was being tracked onto hotel carpets and into railroad cars, the guide explains. So Shore towns began laying wood boards on the sand during tourist season and removing them at the end of each season.

As more and more people visited the shore, seats, pavilions and places to eat sprung up along the boardwalks and they became permanent fixtures in many towns and had to be maintained year-round.

While Atlantic City has long claimed to have constructed the first boardwalk in 1870, Marino said research for Boardwalks of New Jersey showed that distinction actually belongs to Cape May, which installed its first boardwalk in 1868. However, he noted, Atlantic City can rightly claim it had the first raised walk and the first with amusements.

Point Pleasant, by 1890, was the first Shore town to build its boardwalk on pilings to end the problem of winter storms covering the boards with sand, he said.

Many Shore towns had planked walks, boardwalks or promenades by the early 1900s. Once a practical means of getting to and from the beach, they had become places to stroll and socialize and as the crowds grew, so did the businesses and amusements ancillary to them.

For each boardwalk, the guide gives location, length, descriptive and historical information and directions on how to get there. Photos taken by the authors or vintage postcards from Marino’s collection illustrate the sections, which are divided into counties and other geographic areas, the history of boardwalks, maintenance and boardwalks lost to storms.

The guide is loaded with boardwalk trivia like the fact that the promenade on the Long Branch boardwalk has monuments to seven United States presidents who summered there, earning the city the nickname, "The Summer Capital."

Anecdotes culled from acquaintances and friends of friends add local flavor.

Marino was at a party when a friend volunteered that as a teen he worked at one of the games on the Asbury Park boardwalk. He recalled that a young boy frequented the game and that he would jump up and down and "holler" when he won. Years later, Marino’s friend recognized the boy as Louie, the irascible character on the TV series Taxi, played by Shore native Danny DeVito.

Each boardwalk has its own character, the authors said.

"You can tell a lot about a town from its boardwalk," Handschuch noted.

"MTV comes down to Seaside Heights in the summer," Marino explained. "There’s a lot of noise, a lot of children’s activities and nightclubs. In Spring Lake, there are no amusements, no food stands. Spring Lake used to be where people went to walk at the turn of the century, and they still do that."

After a year spent walking the boards, the co-authors revisited several boardwalks to note any changes and found that some revisions were necessary. In Long Branch, for example, beach replenishment had altered the vista from the town’s 2.2-mile boardwalk and promenade.

"We had said, ‘If you want to enjoy a long walk and look down on the water, Long Branch is the place to go,’ " explained Marino. "Meanwhile, there had been sand replenishment and the beach was filled in."

"When we first walked it, the boardwalk was on a ridge looking down on the water," added Handschuch. "By the time we revisited, the level of the boardwalk had changed."

While theme parks have lured some tourists away, they can’t replace the seashore ambiance that has attracted boardwalk strollers for more than a century, they said.

"There’s a little nostalgia to the wood boards," said Handschuch.

"Sure, other states have boards, and I’ve been on a couple, but there’s a special attraction to the Jersey Shore and its boardwalks," agreed Marino, who even penned a boardwalk anthem that evokes the appeal of the "boards."

"Walking on the boardwalks at the Jersey Shore.

Calliope is singin’ with the ocean’s roar.

Walking in the nighttime or the noonday sun.

Come on, baby, we can have some fun,

At the Jersey Shore."