Columns
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•February 8, 2023
Lucy Evelyn Takes to the Sea
Recently I was asked had I ever written anything about the history of the Lucy Evelyn. A quick search of the last 40 years of articles came up with nothing.
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•February 5, 2023
Duck Hunters Cause a Squawk on the North End; A Shark Becomes the Most Valued Fish of All Time
I have to get some free-fire freakiness out of the way first. It comes from the North End.
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•February 1, 2023
The Estelle Krieger’s Inglorious End
One hundred years ago this month the four-masted schooner Estelle Krieger grounded off Ship Bottom, N.J. Although it is not remembered as one of the most famous Long Beach Island nautical stories…
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•January 29, 2023
When We’re Down to Zombies and Bug-Outs; A Meat and Potatoes Disrespect for Fish
So, whadda ya wanna talk about, as we move through the dank and dreary digestive tract of winter? There’s not much a-fish out there, though I did see some perchers atop the Mullica River and working…
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•January 26, 2023
Mild Weather, Good Pattern for Waves Make for Fun Winter
Figured I would start this week off with a bit of good news. And it has nothing to do with surfing, the environment or other watery pursuits. By now, most of Ocean County has heard about the horrid…
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•January 18, 2023
Show Some Respect for Dearly Departed Leviathans; Keeping an Eye on Any Pandemic Trickledown Effects
Spoiler alert: This segment will likely lose me readers and might even have the men in black government Suburbans come and take me away – all over dead whales. Hey, it’s worth the sacrifice. Whales…
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•January 18, 2023
Early Life of the ‘Estelle Krieger’
With the start of a new year while looking for new topics to write about, I came upon a 100-year-old article dated Feb. 9 reporting that a four-masted schooner, the Estelle Krieger, was in trouble…
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•January 13, 2023
New Year, New Habits, New Waves
Does anyone else by January start to look at their Christmas tree like the corpse of a mob hit?
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•January 11, 2023
Taking Time for Pickerel on a Stick; Butting GOATs Out of Existence
Well, my Christmas vacation flu by. Sympathy and empathy to the many others who were so be-bugged for the holidays.
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•January 11, 2023
Did You Pass the Test?
The SandPaper vacation is over, although the weather is more like April then January. It’s time to get back to work, which means you get a chance to grade your 200 Plus end-of-year exam.
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•December 22, 2022
Feeling Bad for ‘Happy’ This Holiday; Bigger Pipes Are Coming to Drain Us
’Tis upon us, the time of year when “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” ring out, wonderously. While I merrily adhere to this great greeting, I nonetheless feel an odd sympathy for “Happy.” Say…
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•December 21, 2022
Do Families Really Get Cars for Christmas? And Gift Wrapping Up the Year in Waves
Well, in case you didn’t realize it, the holidays are officially upon us. You probably noticed when Old Navy started running Christmas commercials a week before Halloween, aka “The War on…
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•December 21, 2022
Were You Paying Attention?
The shortest day of the year brings The SandPaper’s vacation, until the sun begins to return in January. As part of this annual ritual, this column has its end of year trivia contest. Speed here…
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•December 15, 2022
When Poaching Becomes a Conspiracy; Miraculous Speed of a Finger Snap
It has been a frosty end to fall. Not so much frosty cold, but actual ice crystals on roofs and eelgrass, which is a rare look on the Island. Ocean breezes often prevent the early a.m. sparkle show…
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•December 14, 2022
Tuckerton Rescues New York Christmas
Five years ago, I discovered a little-known Jersey Shore Christmas story. Today, after the events which have taken place since then, it might help to retell a story of the true holiday spirit.
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•December 13, 2022
Crustacean Shells Assist Humanity Power Needs; Jersey Has It Going When Comes to National Honesty
We could very well be riding into the future on the backs of shrimp and crabs, so to speak. And, no, this is not the latest rendition of “Dune.” It’s more along the lines of staying cleanly powered…
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•December 10, 2022
With Surf and Life, Timing Is Everything
Everything with surfing revolves around the conditions. And conditions are always changing. Therefore, surfing has a lot to do with timing.
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•November 30, 2022
Cellular Seafood Is Being Made as We Speak; Giant Geese Have Come Back From the Dead
The guns of Barnegat Bay are once again announcing the shivery dawn, a bit like well-armed roosters. While I don’t hunt, I’m not indifferent to the fact that hunters have preserved more wetlands and…
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•November 30, 2022
Hostility Sends Most Mormons West
Following the murder of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith by a Nauvoo, Ill. mob in 1844, the church leadership was thrown into turmoil.
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•November 24, 2022
Things Are Wild on the NJ Turkey Front; Seeking Those Pond-Attacking Vandals
Welcome to the holiday season. May inflation work its subtle magic by making this year’s gift giving more spiritual than material, more giving than grabbing. Hey, thoughtfulness can trump even…
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•November 24, 2022
Surf Has Been Running Hot and (Very) Cold With Great Gatherings on the Horizon
Does anyone else feel like they walked out of their house barefoot onto the green grass in the middle of November and Old Man Winter just came charging around the side of the house at full speed…
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•November 23, 2022
Mormons Find Converts in the Pines
In the 1820s, Joseph Smith at Palmyra, N.Y. related several revelations that led to the writing of the Book of Mormon and the founding of a new religion, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day…
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•November 21, 2022
It Gets No More Inaccessible Than Point Nemo; Don’t Question the Right to Take Striper Selfies
EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE: My social graces are anything but graceful. I’ve never been a social butterfly – more like a bristly caterpillar trying to escape people for all its many legs are…
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•November 13, 2022
November Wave and Weather Pleasantries Amid Shifting of Seasons
“Last week felt like those days you longed for in high school, whether you were cutting class or waiting for the bell to ring so you could get to the beach. The water is warmer right now than it was…
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•November 9, 2022
‘Butterfly’: From Spray Beach to La Scala
The story of the famous opera “Madame Butterfly” started in Spray Beach on Long Beach Island, where long-time summer resident John Luther Long, a Philadelphia lawyer, took a story told to him by his…
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•November 7, 2022
You Better Be There to Buy … or Not; Rescue Made in Green Briar Hell
Let’s start off in Weirdnessville this week by focusing on that quick-change billboard on Route 72 in Manahawkin near the Holiday Inn. It’s digitized and computerized, brightly cycling through…
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•November 2, 2022
‘Butterfly’ Gains National Notice
If you ask the average person to name five great operas, chances are “Madame Butterfly” would be on the list. If you then told them there was a direct link between the famous opera and a house…
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•November 1, 2022
Contest Becomes a Leaden Downfall for Cheaters; LBI Bluefin Tuna Travels to the Mediterranean
The real-time capture of cheats at an Ohio walleye fishing contest has become a nationwide news sensation, highlighted by scathing social media comments evoked by smartphone video recordings of the…
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•October 27, 2022
Another Island Landmark Gone, Boardriders Converge, Uncooperative Winds
Here’s the sad news, folks: The 7-Eleven in Ship Bottom closed on Sunday.
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•October 22, 2022
The Day That Was Supposed to Be Good vs. the Day That Was Really Good
Has anyone noticed what’s been happening in surf shops the last few years?
