Columns
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•November 25, 2021
The Odd Affiliation of Gulf Auctions and Windmills; Autumnal Striped Bass Remain Big on the Three ‘B’s
When it comes to us Earthlings possibly allowing the planet to die during our watch, I’m genetically inclined to be upbeat, clinging to a live-long-and-prosper attitude. I vow that we, as a global…
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•November 25, 2021
The Difference Between Happy Winter and the Actual Winter to Come
I would like to think this week’s ramblings could be helpful to non-surfers just as much as those who ride waves. Aside from the Labor Day column and the one column I seem to write each summer after…
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•November 24, 2021
Who Was to Blame for Disaster?
By 1850, the pioneering Camden & Amboy Railroad was one of the most profitable and powerful corporations in the country. Granted a monopoly by the New Jersey Legislature, it controlled all rail…
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•November 23, 2021
Revenge Tourism Was Born on LBI; Stripers Making a Sudsy Comeback
VENGEANCE TAKES HOLIDAY: As we speak, travel revenge, also known as tourist revenge, is all the buzz.
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•November 17, 2021
Another Disaster for NJ Railroad
The Camden & Amboy Railroad was the first to connect the cities of Philadelphia and New York. Under normal circumstances you would expect that within a short time others would also be constructed to…
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•November 15, 2021
Shopping the Shore for Good of LBI; Why We Have to Ferret Out Veterinarians
CLAUS FOR CONCERN: This entire hubbub over hellish gaps in the holiday supply chain of holiday goods has me, along with a boatload of others, detecting an all too convenient act of reaching early…
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•November 13, 2021
‘Daylight Complainings’ Time During a Great Month on LBI
Did you feel like Sunday night’s sunset was more than just another pretty sunset? It kind of felt like a peace offering.
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•November 10, 2021
Rocky Start for New Railroad Co.
During the fall of 1833, the Camden & Amboy Railroad began the first steam-powered transportation link between New York and Philadelphia. At first it was held as a marvel of modern technology, but a…
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•November 6, 2021
Time to Finally Fall Back for Good; Replacing Stock Hooked With Circles
BOTTOMS UP: I’m in the dark as to why we persist with these annual clock backs and forths. The hour swings are traumatic to all our coveted circadian rhythms, which has gotten me deeply thinking…
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•November 1, 2021
The Wicked Weir of the North Strikes Again; Lonely Fading Away of Holgate Rip Bass
The Wicked Weir of the North just claimed yet another victim. Those submerged jetty rocks at the east end of the North Jetty at Barnegat Inlet ruined life for a very sweet sailing vessel.
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•October 27, 2021
Wetsuit Season Coming Later, But So Is Your New Wetsuit; Bombing Waves and Weather
When summer ends and the fall festivals tick past each weekend, surfers eventually have to face a certain reality. First there’s a little chill as the air drops. The ocean is slower to cool, but…
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•October 27, 2021
Railroads Enter Age of Steam
The story of the role played by New Jersey in the steam transport revolution of the 1800s is filled with many firsts. Some are proudly remembered; some we would just as soon forget.
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•October 26, 2021
Woman Bombarded From the Sky; Migrating Mullet Make Final Run for It
Loads of fishy stuff below, but first a bit of free-falling freakiness.
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•October 21, 2021
While October Has Been a Treat, Surf Has Been Tricky … Oh, and La Niña Is Here
Well, since American consumerism dictates that the Christmas season starts in 10 days, I want to make sure Halloween has a fighting chance.
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•October 20, 2021
Disaster on the Rails
In the fall of 1833, the Camden Amboy railroad opened the first rapid transportation link between the nation’s two leading cities, New York and Philadelphia. Steamboats would take a passenger across…
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•October 17, 2021
A Grain of Salt and the Almanacs; Normal Winter Would Present as Hot
Well, that there was some kinda blow. All told, it was well over 96 straight hours of honking small craft advisory-grade northeast winds, coming in at 20 to 25 mph with higher gusts. Such a…
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•October 13, 2021
Surprise Waves Much Appreciated; Big Blow Does Little for Surf and Weather
I just want to say that last November, after that sad pandemic Halloween, I shaved our pumpkin and threw it in the blender, seeds and all. I took the yellow-orange paste and dried it out for a week…
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•October 13, 2021
Persistent Effort to Save Old Barney
With the coming of fall 1921, the friends of Barnegat Lighthouse had convinced the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, and the U.S. President, Warren G. Harding, to join the fight to prevent…
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•October 7, 2021
California’s Oil Mess Might Remind Us About Cleaner Energy; Hurricane Sam Surf Impressively Unrideable
Well, September was a peach, and thus far October is earning its spot in the all-time Local Summer record books. But while we were enjoying idyllic beach weather and some bluer than normal water…
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•October 6, 2021
When Excuses Fly Over Having No Permit; Give Thanks to Possums Before They Pass
BEACH BUGGY BANTER: It’s the season of excuses for those driving beaches without a permit. I’ll offer a quick excuse primer. And nobody knows the babbling explanations I’ve heard over the decades.
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•October 6, 2021
Still Fighting for the Lighthouse
It’s said you can’t fight City Hall or mess with Mother Nature. But that is exactly what a band of citizens forever remembered as “the Friends of Barnegat Light” spent 1921 doing.
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•October 2, 2021
Strange Beauty of Early Fall, Surf Rams Shredding, Swells Past and Future
There’s something that has always been funny about surfing in the early fall, particularly when you get back to your car on a bright, warm mid-morning and there are all these clothes rumpled up.
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•September 30, 2021
Pescatarians Get Month to Themselves; You Won’t Believe My Fishy Marine Band
I joyfully admit I fully flubbed one of my fall predictions. I had prophesied a busy-ass September on LBI, almost on par with summertime times, based on last year.
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•September 29, 2021
Explosion Hits Penns Grove
When it comes to history or journalism, deciding what to include is almost as important as how you cover the subject. What else happened on Dec. 7, 1941, or the day man landed on the moon? Aug. 24…
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•September 23, 2021
September-rific Times and … Who Would Watch ‘The Ultimate Surfer’ Show?
Do you ever think we make too much of September around LBI?
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•September 22, 2021
Black Flies Take Over the Island
SMALLER IS NEW NORMAL: Over the weekend, a national news broadcast ran with a catchy story that the world’s fishes are getting smaller, literally littler. The story was almost singularly predicated…
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•September 22, 2021
Leave No One Behind
The modern question of whether to leave America’s fallen buried on foreign soil, or bring them home, had its origin just over 100 years ago as World War I was coming to an end. Over 110,000 Americans…
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•September 21, 2021
Time to Go All ‘007’ on Invaders; CHANJ Seeks Creature Continuum
Today’s theme: If the Chinese can do it … why can’t all y’all?
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•September 16, 2021
Long Period Larry Delivers Classic Highs and Lows of Hurricane Season
A couple of weeks ago we were all pretty jazzed about the Hurricane Henri swell. That was a minimal hurricane that made a very fast pass some 100 miles off our coast and eventually hit Rhode Island.
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•September 15, 2021
ZR-2 Casualties Return Home
In September 1921, as America debated the future of airships and the huge hangar at Lakehurst, the funeral services began for the Americans who had died in England preparing to fly the giant ZR-2 on…
