Things came together for fun surf on Monday. (Photo by Jack Reynolds)
I think we should probably discontinue the LBI 18 Mile Run.
It’s not the traffic or the detours. It’s run very well, and I know it helps local business in the shoulder season. It seems to be a very safe and positive event for all those involved.
My concern is for those of us who are not involved. Because let me tell you, there is nothing that makes the rest of us feel like an absolute pile than driving the Island to get pancakes or heading to the bar, than watching all those nut jobs with their ridiculous self-discipline running the Boulevard.
Sunday’s rain was the soaking kind. Not all rain is quite that wet. It wasn’t a major downpour, but that heavy rain that didn’t let up and simply soaked every bit of clothing as you dashed from the car to the pizza parlor, to the bakery or the Mexican take-out spot. Because even though it was 65 degrees, the wind and soak made it feel much cooler – the kind of day to sit inside and eat a mushroom slice, double chocolate cookies and hot tacos. And the last thing we need on our way to secure such comforts is these go-getters out getting their go (many of them shirtless) for 18 miserable miles through that same awful wind and soak.
So maybe for the sake of the rest of us, just call the whole thing. We don’t need that kind of guilt in our lives. Can’t we just enjoy a lazy day without these over-achievers rubbing our noses in it?
In all seriousness, big respect to those who ran.
Also in all seriousness, how about these weekends lately?
It was somewhat chilly and junky on Sept. 19-20. Then a nor’easter gets jammed below a high-pressure system, blows on us for a week, fills the bay and for Sept. 26-27 causes a state of emergency and the worst flooding since Sandy. That was followed by a week of cleanup before the gray and another wet and wild nor’easter on Oct. 3-4, making for a Beach Haven mudfest at the Chowder Cook-Off. And then this past weekend, those crazies running in the remnants of Hurricane Isaias.
Overall, the weather hasn’t been terrible …. well, besides the seven-day nor’easter, the cleanup and the destroying of sandbars. But other than that, we have had some truly glorious days in there – warm, sunny, no humidity and light winds, definitely some midweek windows to make up for the lost Local Summer on the boat or at the beach. Here we are mid-week in the 70s again.
But the weekends – What an event season! And hopefully brides and grooms had good senses of humor or weather insurance.
Wet maniacs actually enjoying the race on Sunday. (Photo by David Biggy)
Locally, we depend on these shoulder-season Sundays for income to make sure we’re going to be able to make it through the long, harsh winter. Otherwise, we’re scraping wild oysters off pilings to survive. Every Sunday has been absolutely terrible, which is an economic hit for the area. From what we’re seeing with the price of gas and electric, no one will even be able to afford the pay-per-view of Pete Hesgeth’s livestreamed inmate execution. (Not exactly the brightest era in American history.) Weekends have been a rough go in autumn of 2026.
SURF STUFF: Most of last week the surf was very small, if not flat. And while we were enjoying some stellar days, a low-pressure system that had moved east off Mexico into the Gulf became a depression and then Tropical Storm Isaias. Then, a full month after the historical peak of hurricane season, we had our first hurricane of the year. The lack of storms to that point had been historic in its own right, one of the downstream effects of the strong El Niño. Forming on Oct. 8, it tied for the latest first hurricane of the season. The last time that happened was 1905!
Isaias became a Cat 3 the next day and then weakened to a Cat 2 on Saturday, when it hit Destin, Fla. At that point, the storm lost organization, but became that big, undefined wet mess that literally covered the entire East Coast from the Florida Keys to the top of Maine. The weather arrived here Saturday later in the night with rain and whipping onshore winds. The buoys were reading just shy of 10-foot swell by Sunday evening.
Monday morning the buoy was 5, and then 4 by mid-morning, when the wind started clocking around. It stayed north and then went very light but didn’t really clean up until later in the day. The South End got organized first, and then the rest of the Island followed. There was definitely a point at low tide when it got unappetizing, but when the tide filled in, we had most of the afternoon of clean, blue surf in light offshore winds. The waves hitting the late-day light were gorgeous. If you lined it up right, there were some open barrels as well.
With the sand still all over the place, certain spots would get good for a certain tide and turn off as quickly as they had turned on. Overall, this was a very good swell – chest to head high, mostly out of the east, light winds, no drift and very peaky. The ocean is still in the 60s. Had the sandbars not been so shredded, it would have been all-time.
Tuesday still had a little wave for the loyal, and there was barely a breeze. The wind eventually went south and kicked up a little new windswell. I would suspect that today (Wednesday) could have a few small, clean rights, but those sandbars will make it tough. Friday looks like a similar scenario as of now. Unfortunately, the weekend looks pretty tiny.
DOWN AT SOUTH END: This Saturday and Sunday will be South End Surf N’ Paddle and the Alpha Project’s Hero’s Weekend, providing surf and yoga experience to first responders and vets. This has been rescheduled, like so many other events, from September due to the storm. South End has been raising money for this all summer this year, their customers donated $26,000 to exceed their goal of $24,000. The money helps to run Hero’s Weekend as well as house the participants and their families.
Mitchell Gaudioso races a left on the South End Monday. (Photo by Tom Beaty)
And while the Bekelja family has been selflessly planning this event, they’ve also been mucking and gutting parts of the shop that had literally feet of water from that very nor’easter.
“We’re ready for the event but also racing to reopen this weekend,” Matt Bekelja reported this week, “It’ll be ugly with no floor and walls cut 2-feet up from the floor, but we have to get operating.”
THE SAND SITUATION AND PULLING GROINS: I went back and looked at a video I shot on Monday, Sept. 21. The surf was 1- to 2-foot with maybe a bigger peak. The wind was north-northwest, and the waves weren’t anything special. But I noted at how it was breaking – tight to the beach, some peeling, and whitewater rolling almost to the beach. I knew that day that it would be the last we saw of a nice sandbar there, and sadly, it was. The nor’easter was coming.
Since the sandbars were wrecked, we haven’t had much swell. On days there are waves, we’re all crowding into the same spots already. There have been some clean days of tiny swell. With the sandbars we had all summer, you could have gone out and grabbed tiny peelers on a longboard, but those have been completely not worth the time because the sand is so bad.
Right after the big nor’easter, a friend took me fishing offshore. On the way home, we came in at the Atlantic Highlands, and I was able to get a look at every single beach from Monmouth Beach to Island Beach State Park. The surf was small. But what was really interesting was seeing people surfing around Asbury Park. There were even more people surfing in Ocean Grove. They were tight to the beach, getting rides to the sand, as opposed to our littoral zone, where we have a massive hole off the beach and a tiny ribbon of sand way on the outside.
There were tents on the beach and more surfers in Spring Lake, which I can only assume was a high school surf meet. There were people surfing decent stretches of sand all the way to Manasquan Inlet.
Off the south jetty of Manasquan Inlet, aka Jenks, there was one surfer out. That was the last surfer we saw all the way to Barnegat Inlet. All of Ocean County had awful sandbars. The difference is that Monmouth County still has big jetties (technically they are groins) after replenishment. Ocean County’s were buried. Many of us have noted that, anecdotally, throughout the years. But this was the first time I was able to really observe every spot of both counties after a storm.
Southern Regional Middle Schooler Liam Riser on an overhead wave Monday. (Photo courtesy Reiser family)
I should also offer that there are a lot of folks looking at the beach after that storm and essentially saying beach replenishment is a waste of tax dollars. (Side note: We are now 20 years into LBI beachfill projects.) They argue that all the sand is gone and the flooding came from the bay. Well, clearly all of the sand is not gone. They seem to forget they are making that observation while standing on that sand – a dune that is possibly 10 feet higher than it used to be … that dune kept the ocean from breaching and flooding into the streets. The dune also protects the Ocean and Monmouth county economies that brought in $9.17 billion last year.
Don’t get me wrong, I despise what beach replenishment did to our jetties and sandbars, and ultimately, our wave quality. Anyone who has been surfing that long, feels the same. But there’s no doubt that if the ocean cut through the dunes, started rushing down the streets and mowing down houses, things would be much worse. All of our livelihoods are dependent on those dunes holding. And imagine trying to get to your favorite surf spot if new inlets started cutting through LBI. It’s not that wild of an idea if you look at the vulnerability of North Carolina’s Highway 12 on the Outer Banks. It’s the single route in and out on a barrier island not that different from our own, which gets eaten by the ocean every few years.
So why can’t we get new groins that run from east to west?
The Monmouth County beaches that had big groins also sustained less beach erosion, but I would attribute that as much to where the energy was focused for so many days of that storm. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knows groins help to hold sand. And for the most part, the public loves the groins for fishing, shelling, etc. So why wouldn’t they go about extending the groins here that were buried in the last 20 years of replenishment?
I was told years ago by the NJDEP that rock groins are a massive cost. I believe that, but so is the constant pumping of sand (again and again and again). Might the investment give us long-term return? Well, maybe. But money can’t be allowed to such a project without studies and data. And the USACOE gets only a certain amount of money for such studies. So, until there is more budget going to that government agency, they can’t afford a study to justify new groins. And in the long term, we still have an island. Our sandbars are just awful.
THE GARAGE: Jetty held its Back to the Garage event last Saturday, where several Philly emcees performed as well as the locally based punk band Break Luck. The whole thing came to a crescendo when Break Luck backed the hip hop artists for several songs There are some locals who are really into hip hop, but it’s not something that happens very often around here, and it’s really cool to see up close. They also raised a few bucks for the Jetty Rock Foundation and its partner in the event, The Hip Hop Foundation of Philadelphia.
OCTOBER STUFF: This coming weekend looks like the chilliest yet of the season, but still pretty autumnal. The leaves (those that haven’t fallen off the trees from the nor’easters and hurricane remnants) will really start to turn this week.
This weekend sees a lot of rescheduled events from the nor’easter. Friday and Saturday will be Patagonia’s Out the Back at Farias Ship Bottom. Ambassadors Greg Long and Annie Reikert will be in town for story talks, beers, workshops, art, food and general surf culture.
The Fellowship of Christian Athletes will also hold its LBI skateboard workshop at the Waretown Skate Park Saturday. All participants are required to wear helmets and pads, $10 per person. Families interested can register at fcasurf.org/lbi.
If the swell cooperates, this weekend could also be the Jetty Clam Jam. I just don’t see the waves cooperating. Keep tuned to Jetty’s social accounts around the end of the week. Right now, not that exciting of a forecast. But the weather has been dynamic this month.
Next Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Billabong Adventure Division will come through Farias Ship Bottom with a new film premiere. They will also have former World Tour surfer turned big wave pioneer Shane Dorian; his son Jackson Dorian, who is following in his footsteps; and Ocean City pro Cruz Dinofa. The night promises some raffles and giveaways.
On Saturday, Oct. 24, Wave Hog Surf Shop and Matador Surf Shop will come together for a Fall Board Swap at Matador on Route 72 in Manahawkin. There are always epic finds at these.
It would seem that Spooky Season starts earlier and earlier each year, and I support that. Seeing wreaths and Santas in the box stores before Labor Day this year was just obnoxious. But if you want to get down with Halloween a week before Oct. 31, that’s actually great. For kids, Ship Bottom Police Department will have its Trunk or Treat at the 10th Street boat ramp at 4:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23. Surf City will have its Trunk or Treat 5 p.m. on Oct. 24 at the SC Volunteer Fire Co. For the adults, some of the bars have costume parties that weekend as well.
Due to some scheduling conflicts mid-October, the Volcom Garden State Grudge Match won’t be happening until after Oct. 17. This is the state’s best surfers going head-to-head at Seaside Heights. The event is “on call” for any day of swell the back half of the month.
And if you need to keep in shape on these down days, I guess running isn’t the worst thing.
