Columns
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•October 31, 2018
If Getting Excited and Claiming Your Waves Is Wrong, We Don’t Want to Be Right
There’s a lot of talk in surfing about claims.
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•October 24, 2018
Save your Trunk or Treat and Turn Your Kids Loose for the Real Thing on Halloween; Spooky Weekend Nor’easter.
All Hallow’s Eve is coming up in just a week. It’s kind of like Christmas for weirdos, which is generally epic. Remember when you were a kid and Halloween fell on a weekend? You went out with an…
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•October 24, 2018
U-boat’s Mines Claim a Victim
As October 1918 was drawing to a close, news from the Western Front held the nation’s attention, causing many to overlook one of the greatest demonstrations of bravery that ever took place in the…
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•October 23, 2018
Hot Philly Bugs on Black Market; Rare Red Drum Need 500,000 Recruits
So, I get this odd email and a Huff Post news clipping from a gal who cohabitates Philly and LBI. Referencing my blogs on illegal wildlife trade, she passed on news of a theft from the Philadelphia…
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•October 17, 2018
The Man Who Couldn’t Resist Egg-Napping; What’s Behind a Massive Mullet Showing
I have to begin this week with some worldly weirdness – and a rotten-egg kinda guy. A friend across the pond with the BBC sent me this scrambled story. It’s about an obsessive-compulsive man and his…
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•October 17, 2018
Flu Continues to Slam County
It’s said “It’s darkest before the dawn.” This might explain the situation in October 1918. On the Western Front American doughboys were dying in record numbers, while at home the Spanish influenza…
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•October 17, 2018
Fall Arrived Overnight and With It Came the Swell of the Season
Driving over the bridge in the late hours on Thursday night was like something out of “Star Wars.” Whenever conditions get that bad and I drive across the main span, way above the riled-up bay, winds…
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•October 10, 2018
Influenza Devastates Ocean County
One hundred years later it’s hard to imagine the crisis that enveloped the United States in October 1918; while most disasters are local, the Spanish flu pandemic gripped the nation from coast to…
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•October 10, 2018
Clean Water and Air Are Overrated, 13-Day Swell, Hurricane Michael and Steel to the Groin
Not a bad weekend on this sandbar. And it seems we’re getting a little more September to make up for the one we missed. There were an awful lot of people about. This not only gave businesses a nice…
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•October 9, 2018
China’s Exotic Traditions Mauling Rare Wildlife; Holgate Eroding Into the Sunset
SHARK FIN SOUP STILL MENUED: The latest report card on efforts to quell the shark-finning crisis indicates minimal gains in stopping the slurping madness. By the critical reckoning of shark savers…
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•October 3, 2018
Miraculous Survival at Sea
Part of a little-known tale of maritime survival came to an end when newspapers across the country reported on Oct. 31, 1918, “A submarine chaser on duty off the Jersey coast about eight miles east…
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•October 3, 2018
A Love Letter to the Weather, Non-Stop Swell, El Niño and a New Campaign for the Carolinas
There were no gale force winds. There were no land falling superstorms, nor blizzards. There was no Polar Vortex nor a heat wave. There were no tornado warnings in Manahawkin or meteotsunamis…
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•October 3, 2018
Colombian Cartel High on Totoaba Fish; Little Egg Harbor, Manahawkin Bay Losing Identity
It might be the ultimate indicator in how valuable smuggling animal parts can be. One of the highest-ranking members of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel was recently arrested for complicity in a…
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•September 26, 2018
Spanish Flu’s Spread Unstoppable
As the Spanish flu of 1918 began to spread through military bases like Camp Dix in New Jersey, it seemed only a matter of time until civilians began to fall ill. The U.S. Surgeon General gave the…
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•September 26, 2018
Gilman Gets the Nod, the Surf Gets Good for Two Minutes, Tropics Get Going Again
Sometimes I think it’s crazy how surf photography has changed since I started writing. Back in the ’90s, a single black and white shot of Justin Citta tearing into a Surf City line running in Eastern…
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•September 25, 2018
Weird Case of Indian Chitals in NJ; Waxing Nostalgic on Grandma’s Reusable Shopping Bag
GET CLASSY: It’s time to get seriously Classic. I’m talking the upcoming Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic – upcoming as in next weekend. I know, where does the time fly? If it’s smart it goes…
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•September 19, 2018
Keep Your Binge Watching to Yourself, Folding Out Flo, Letter from Holgate and a Fabulous Maker’s Fest
“Just finished watching the final season of (insert series name here). Any recommendations on what to watch next?”
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•September 19, 2018
It’s a Time for Salmonologists to Dine On; When Sheepshead Ruled Bayside Fishing
I gotta go gastronomic this week, which I’m always prone to do since seafood is my only foray into non-vegetable dining matter. I last ate meat when Lyndon Johnson was in season. Anyway, being a…
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•September 19, 2018
News From France, Death at Home
In September 1918 as the Spanish influenza was spreading across the United States, local newspapers tried to keep people informed of the progress of the war in far-off France. On Sept. 6, the New…
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•September 12, 2018
Local Summer a Local Bummer, Flo Go Away and Equal Pay in Pro Surfing
Every year we await the coming gift of September, the promise of summer weather minus the crowds. Each year, we yearn for temps to drop a few degrees. We look forward to glorious weekdays on the…
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•September 12, 2018
A Weekend Worth of Downright Crappiness; Hurricane Flo Could Get Floodwaters A-Flow
That was a certified crappy weekend even among crappy weekends. And we’re on a slow track toward more upper-level crapification should the remnants of H. Florence – and hopefully nothing more than…
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•September 11, 2018
Death Sails With the Troops
An outbreak of the Spanish influenza among the troops at Camp Dix in New Jersey occurred in mid-September 1918, and the Camden Courier of Sept. 18 reported on attempts to battle the disease.
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•September 5, 2018
Flu Stalks Camp Dix Celebration
The numbers associated with the 1918 flu pandemic are staggering, but it is the stories of those who experienced it that linger in your mind. The first U.S. outbreaks, at New York and Boston, were…
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•September 5, 2018
Tropics Worth Watching and the Latest on the Holgate Groin
Well, that was a bit of a whirlwind. I’m sure there’s a joke or a rhyme or something about SUPs on SUVs leaving the Island, but I’m too fried to think of one.
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•September 4, 2018
Nothing Terminal in This Groin Project; Black Flies De-People Beaches
With the tourist season on the outbound lane, it’s time to talk the local talk, beginning with the growingly controversial proposed terminal groin for the south end of Holgate proper, i.e. the…
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•August 29, 2018
Talking About Groins, a Decent Swell, Soft-Tops and a Truly Abbreviated Summer Season
LBI used to have jetties. Some folks call ’em groins, but if I said “red French fry sauce,” you’d probably know I meant ketchup. Don’t focus some much on the word “jetty” as the phrase “used to,” in…
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•August 29, 2018
When Sharkers Reach Hazardous Release Points; Nature Awesomely Struts Its Stuff for Beachgoers
I have a quick follow-up to last week’s shark-bites-angler tale out of Surf City. Added incoming info suggests it might have either been a selfie gone wrong or a 4-foot-ish brown shark taking umbrage…
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•August 29, 2018
Medical Failures Spread Spanish Flu
Tracing the 1918 influenza pandemic is like watching a snowball rolling down a hill, getting bigger and bigger, knowing as it does it will be harder to stop. The first flu cases arrived in New York…
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•August 22, 2018
A Shark-Bit Man Gets the Full Emergency Response Treatment; Bonnet Nature Trail Is Lookin’ Good Though Bazookas Are a Must
SHARK BITES MAN: I’ve gotten updated word that a shark bite incident in Surf City last week was just that … a man positively bitten by a shark! Call out the Marines, right?! Not so fast, Kimosabe.…
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•August 22, 2018
Death Strikes From Friendly Fire
One of the most dreaded phrases for the morale of the military is “friendly fire,” when death and destruction are brought down on helpless comrades by their own forces or allies. One of World War I’s…
