Columns
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•September 18, 2019
Big Post-Season Surf Will Remain Deadly; Bunker Balls Could Become Too Plentiful
We’re well into the post-season, and the winds are playing the all-to-ourselves spoiler. A second round of fishing-ruinous northeast windsis not only making things sloppy for boater anglers, but also…
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•September 11, 2019
Deadly Doings in the Pinelands Revealed
Mention the name “Lakehurst” to most people and they think of the U.S. Navy and giant airships. But for a brief period of time, a hundred years ago, it was a location of an Army base called Camp…
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•September 11, 2019
Tired of Hearing About How Great Local Summer Is? Neither Are We.
“It’s better in September”… Local Summer … The second season. Oh, how we love to glorify this time of year. Year-rounders, part-time residents, and especially surfers. All year we talk about how…
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•September 11, 2019
Summer Skies Were a Sight to Behold; It’s a Hurricane by Any Other Name
It’s a fine time to wax back on the departing summer. I’m hallmarking it as the summer of storms – passing in a flash, accompanied by resounding thunderclaps. It offered some wild-sky looks.
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•September 4, 2019
What’s Happening in the Pines?
The Pine Barrens of New Jersey are a place filled with legends and stories. Some, like the Jersey Devil, have been countlessly retold, while others have slowly faded from the pages of history. One…
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•September 3, 2019
Annual Easing of the Pressure; All Eyes on Dorian
I’m selling all of my beach badges. I hear there’s still another month of beach weather, so if you want them, hit me up. I’ll give you a deal.
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•September 3, 2019
‘Military’ Driving Is Ambush Ready; Holgate’s Same Sad Sand Story
Well, it’s that time of year when the Island dies on a dime … in a not-bad way, mind you. The season of beachiness and sun letting gives way to post-season semi-solitude, as tourist traffic bows out…
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•August 28, 2019
Surfing in 2019 Is The Age of Silly and The Atlantic Comes to Life
Question: Do you think Ray Romano and Jon Stewart have countless photos of themselves with random strangers around LBI? Do you think they ever just flip through their phones, going: “Here’s me with…
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•August 28, 2019
The Ride Down a Dirt Road
In 2018, more than 200 years after its construction, the Cedar Bridge Tavern was about to again welcome the public – but this time not as a place to eat, drink or sleep, but to tell the story of a…
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•August 27, 2019
Joining Forces to Rally the Island; Eyes in Sky Soon Go Fishing
It was tough going from sun to unsun, warmth to unwarmth – all in an LBI minute. Day temps went from 85 to 55 as if they had just noticed a cop up ahead. So, might this mini plunge be a sign of an…
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•August 21, 2019
Digging Deeper in the Pines
The story of what it took to save the historic site known as Cedar Bridge Tavern is one of luck and dedication. It was purchased by Ocean County in 2007, and preliminary archaeological digs and…
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•August 21, 2019
Why Hurricanes Are So Special to Surfers and Looking Back on Hurricane Bob
It’s been 35 years since my first true hurricane experience. And even though most of those swells were overhyped, even though our uniform shoreline does terrible on long-period tropical swells, and…
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•August 20, 2019
When ‘Game Wardens’ Make Presence Known; Pickerel Fishing Hooks Passing PETA Mom
The New Jersey Conservation Officers Association page on Facebook is always a fascinating read. It carries reports of its fish and wildlife enforcement activities. And, yes, those Conservation Police…
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•August 14, 2019
Loss of a Beach Haven Legend, Surfline Sessions and a Lot of a Little
Surf mags are kinda dead, and that’s a bummer.
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•August 14, 2019
Digging Up History at the Tavern
As you stand on a dirt road just off Route 72 in Barnegat surrounded by what is called the Pine Barrens and look at the fully restored Cedar Bridge Tavern, most people ask how and why. The Press of…
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•August 13, 2019
Man Behind the Reefs Receives a Patch of His Own
Manahawkin’s Bill Kane Figley, the man credited with making New Jersey’s artificial reef system what it is today, has been bestowed with a namesake reef – specifically, a section of the Atlantic City…
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•August 13, 2019
Things That Go Bump in the Water; A Cut Below the Rest at Sushi Class
Can we talk sharks … again? This chat has some local color to it, as in brown and maybe white (sharks).
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•August 7, 2019
The Story of the Night Surf Mishap, Southern Hemi Swells and Longboard Classic This Weekend
“Summer’s almost over. Let’s get radical.” –Matt Johnson, “Big Wednesday,” 1974.
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•August 7, 2019
Digging for the (Arti)Facts
In December 2007, Ocean County purchased the Cedar Bridge Tavern and its 5 acres of land for $120,000 with the stipulation that Rudy Koening, the former owner, could remain there until his death.…
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•August 6, 2019
Ugly Fish Proliferates And Attacks; Keep Rover in Mind If Celling Along
I want to offer some ink to one of our oddest marine species, a fish seen by many as the ugliest thing in our nearshore waters. I’m speaking of the northern stargazer, a bottom-borrowing creature…
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•July 31, 2019
Growing Support to Save the Tavern
An article in the March 18, 1871, Trenton State Gazette told the story of a group of Pennsylvania hunters who had traveled to New Jersey in search of game birds.
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•July 31, 2019
An Epic Coquina Jam, Inspiring Paddlers, and Are You Living Summer to the Fullest?
Did you have a soft shell sandwich this week? Did you swim or surf in 78-degree water?
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•July 30, 2019
Non-Riches Within Our Seaweeds; Sin City Gets Rained Down Upon
Seaweed has turned into pure gold in Asia, transformed by the Midas touch of eclectic Japanese taste buds. Assorted seaweeds, known asnori over there, are an essential part of every Rising Sunner’s…
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•July 24, 2019
Saving the Cedar Bridge Tavern
If you had been with Henry Carlton Beck in 1934, when he first visited the Cedar Bridge Tavern in Barnegat, there is no way you could imagine that 85 years later it would be restored, open to the…
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•July 24, 2019
‘Man, It Was Hot Out There’: Musings on Summer Heat Waves and the Other Kind of Waves
A man walks into a bar and says, “Man, it’s hot out there.”
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•July 23, 2019
Time Is Right to Storm Trenton as Public Trust Doctrine Bulks Up
This week I’m committed to going public with a long-festering Island issue. You’ll want to read this. In fact, over 90 percent of all LBI aficionados have long been ready to storm this matter as if…
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•July 17, 2019
A ‘New City’ in the Pinelands?
Today as you visit Ocean County’s newly restored Cedar Bridge Tavern, off Route 72 in Barnegat, you should take a moment while enjoying the silence to reflect on the fact that if things had gone…
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•July 17, 2019
Every Season Has Its Song and This Is Summer’s Mix Tape
There’s something about driving over the bridge in the summer. For many of us, it’s a feeling of anticipation, that wondering what the surf is going to be like, what the beach day will bring or even…
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•July 17, 2019
The Island When There’s No Way Out; Fishing Is Panning Out in a Small Way
NO EXIT!: The heavens let loose last week. In a deluge instant, we became an island alone, insular in our inability to get off this 21-mile long strip of vulnerable sand. An estimated3 or more inches…
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•July 10, 2019
When LBI’s White Sands of Time Run Out; Kingfish Showing Just Keeps on Keepin’ On
Last week, I did a hot decidedly short walk in the Pines, taking some stoppage time to admire the area’s famed sugar sand. And it truly is white as said sugar, if not whiter. Walking atop it, I…
