Columns
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•August 6, 2022
Island Cottontails Making a Post-Coyote Comeback; Black Sea Bass Poacher Busted Flat in Barnegat Inlet
How in bloody hell can it be August already!? Einstein said time is relative. Well, it’s apparently no relative of mine. I haven’t even managed to unwrinkle all my aloha shirts, much less sport them…
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•August 3, 2022
‘Man-Eater’ Sharks Reported at Shore
Anyone who has watched the movie “Jaws” remembers the connection to the Jersey Shore shark attacks that began at Beach Haven in July 1916. Many incidents in the movie can be linked to the facts of…
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•August 3, 2022
Beach Haven’s Skate Park Meeting Was Love Fest; Warmer Ocean Temps, Waves of Strength This Weekend
Does anyone remember a somewhat wild public forum at Surf City’s St. Thomas of Villanova Church in the mid-2000s about the beach replenishment projects that were coming to LBI? That one got heated.…
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•July 30, 2022
Ocean Water Chilled as Jetty Coquina Jam Heated Up
The ocean temps are cold – like really, really cold … like someday you may not be able to have children cold. And that’s the obvious topic of conversation east of the bridge during the summer.
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•July 27, 2022
Surfline Is on a Hot-and-Cold Roll; Pricing a New Extended Cab Maserati
BIPOLAR BATHING: Certain summers seem inclined to dole out drastic ocean temperature swings. We’re seemingly immersed in just such a schizophrenic water stint. We’ve already had a series of highly…
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•July 27, 2022
Real Treasure at Last?
Over the last couple of weeks, this column has followed the search for treasure on Long Beach Island, from finding coins on the beach to a mysterious tale of digging up a pirate treasure and…
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•July 25, 2022
Seeking Treasure on LBI
Today, if you walk along a deserted Long Beach Island beach at dawn or dusk, you might witness a strange sight: a person walking parallel to the ocean, looking down and waving a stick back and forth…
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•July 21, 2022
Sharing the Water With Sharks Aplenty; World’s Largest Fluke Gets No Respect
Someone left the furnace door open, allowing a hellish hunk of heat to run free. The bake is not on for only our county, but for much of the Northern Hemisphere.
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•July 20, 2022
The Lure of Pirate Treasure
Most of the romantic history of Long Beach Island can be traced back to George B. Somerville’s 1914 book, Lure of Long Beach. Some of the most often repeated tales dealt with pirates and lost…
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•July 20, 2022
Season of the Groms; Bermuda High Is Weather Pattern, Not Smoke Shop
Yeah, let’s talk flowers. There are several mile markers along the road of summer, and we’ve just passed one. The peak of the tall, orange “common daylily,” as it’s called, marks a very specific…
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•July 14, 2022
Surfer Awareness Can Help Lifeguard Shortage; Fun Runs of Small Surf
Seems there’s a situation on the Island this summer we’ve not really had before and it would probably benefit everyone if surfers and general water folk had an awareness of it.
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•July 13, 2022
Grab Your BB Guns, Lanternflies Are Attacking; Sand Crab Pieces Are Just a Molting Thing
I’m not sure if it was a twist of wind or possibly nearby forest fires, but Southern Ocean County, including LBI, has seen quite the influx of the deemed dread-worthy spotted lanternflies (SLF).…
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•July 11, 2022
Spending a Lovely Day on a Recycled Glass Beach; No End in Sight for Fed-backed Beach Replenishments
It was the most crowded July Fourth – or any summer day – ever. As irrefutable scientific proof, I had to park over two blocks from my workplace on Monday – and even then, I inched into a…
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•July 7, 2022
Wind-Driven Water Temps Tell Tale of Two Weekends in One
It seems that LBI was mostly the capital city of fun this weekend from Monday’s symphony of amateur pyrotechnics and ambulances. First of all, how is Independence Day already behind us? April and May…
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•July 6, 2022
All Eyes Turn to Lakehurst
With the coming of summer 1922, the world’s largest hangar sat empty and unused at Lakehurst, N.J. It had been constructed the year before, anticipating the arrival of the ZR- 2, which had been…
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•June 30, 2022
Surfing Trifecta of Waves, Warm Water and Sandbars With a Side of Social Justice
So, a couple of good things happened this week and a couple of setbacks. If you’re into surfing on LBI, there was reason to be excited like we’ve not had in some time.
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•June 29, 2022
Bringing the ZR-1 to Lakehurst
Sitting in the middle of the New Jersey Pinelands as 1922 began, one of the world’s largest buildings, Hangar No. 1 at Lakehurst, sat empty and unused. The site had been slated to become the center…
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•June 29, 2022
Southern Ocean County Bearing It All; Staying Safely in the Swim of Things
A moment of bearishness in these inflationary times. I have fielded an unusually high number of reports of black bear sightings, with a slew reaching me from within the jungles of social media.
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•June 28, 2022
Mullica Wildfire Comes at the Worst of Times; Kiteboarder Takes the Weirdest of Wounds
Sorry, but I have to commence this week’s column with downness of the highest degree, speaking of the fierce wildfire over in the Pinelands, an area of the Mullica Basin I’ve frequented since kid…
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•June 24, 2022
Summer Tips, Hacks and Cheat Codes With Surf Events Stacking Up
For all the hype of Memorial Day, it always feels a little premature for the starting gun, as it’s followed by a few slow weeks where the Island can be heard catching its collective breath. The…
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•June 22, 2022
Last-Ditch Effort for Inlet Bridge
Most students of American history know that in October 1929 the stock market crashed, helping to lead America into a depression that would change it forever. But in September of that year it still…
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•June 18, 2022
We Brake for Terrapins; Poachers in Our Midst
It’s that time of year when we rally to save/assist egg-laying diamondback terrapins, which qualify as “lady terps” – for all you University of Maryland alumni.
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•June 16, 2022
Weather Voyeurism and Sand’s Slow Return
As those who live close to the coast, do we love a good storm more than others?
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•June 15, 2022
Seaboard Boulevard More Than a Dream?
Long Beach Island lagged behind other Jersey Shore resorts in development. Asbury Park to the north and Atlantic City to the south had long been connected to the major East Coast cities. The boom…
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•June 9, 2022
Hurricane Season’s Start Reminds Us of Its Legends and Lore; Cold Front to Boost Swell
Hurricane season officially started last Wednesday. We had our first storm named on Sunday, and by Tuesday, our first tropical waves of the year were arriving at our shores.
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•June 9, 2022
Bumble Bees Making It Big as Flying Fish; Inshore, Offshore and Somewhere In-Between
Joining the list of things that will be larger than ever this summer is the mariner realm, as new highs in registered vessels and captain certificates point to our waters all but boiling with…
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•June 8, 2022
Grand Plans for Shore Development
One hundred years ago, Long Beach Island was at a crossroads. The results of choices made during the Roaring 20s would affect life on the Island for the next century.
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•June 5, 2022
A Good Holiday Weekend by All Metrics, the Ultimate Summer Sandwich and the Nature of Shifting Sands
Well, that was some holiday weekend, going by all the metrics.
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•June 2, 2022
When Motorists and Pedestrians Combine; New e-Bikes Making Moves on Roadways
It was nice seeing everyone over the weekend … as in everyone in the frickin’ state! Can you imagine what July 4th will be like this year, especially with temperatures scheduled to be near 100? – a…
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•June 2, 2022
Barnegat City Struggles to Connect
In June 1914, after years of promises and waiting, the Long Beach Island automobile bridge and Grand Boulevard were finally opened to automobiles. The effect on the southern half of the Island was…
