Liquid Lines
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•May 9, 2018
Usually a Busy Time for Locals, This Year We’re Slammed
I fully realize that I am not just talking to my neighbors this week. With every extra degree of warmth, more folks are coming to visit our area. And I have to imagine that if I were coming onto LBI…
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•April 25, 2018
This Season Will Be Bowlin’ in Every Sense
Anyone else craving an Açaí bowl? I’m aware that the weather has been more like New England Clam Chowder bowl than sweet frozen fruit bowl of late, but in a few (long) months summer will be here and…
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•April 11, 2018
Talking Water Temp, Again and Again.
If there is one very important matter that gets plenty of ink in these Liquid Lines it’s the temperature of the ocean. And sometimes I have to wonder why I spend so much time writing about the water…
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•March 28, 2018
Besides Waves, the One Great Thing About This Time of Year
If you’ve ever read Liquid Lines before you know I’m not such a big fan of this time of year on LBI. I mean if you’ve read it once, even in November, you’d know my take on it.
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•March 14, 2018
The Craziest Accidental Sandbar Ever
There are times that we, myself very much included, are convinced that the world revolves around our little sandbar. Sometimes it may seem it does, especially if we share a photo of some simple…
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•February 28, 2018
Don’t Buy Into the Springtime Fantasy
It was a feeling we hadn’t had in a long time, somehow familiar and comforting. Walking across the parking lot, we could feel it pulling us in, dark shirt absorbing the sun on our backs.
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•February 14, 2018
Planning for Spring Travel While Boomers Talk Bag Ban
The last few weeks, I’ve had an ongoing conversation with someone who recently moved to LBI. She was quick to adapt to local life, enjoyed the summer, appreciated the fall, and when winter hit, she…
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•January 31, 2018
Is there Some Sort of Sporting Event This Weekend?
I’m probably going to get beat up for this or at the very least, be scraping egg off my windows. But I am going to go ahead and say it: I can’t stand the fact that the Eagles are in the Super Bowl.
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•January 17, 2018
No Sugarcoating It. We’re in a Rough Winter
OK. Who walked through the house with snow on their feet?!
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•December 13, 2017
Hoping You Never Have to Hear This Terrible Christmas Song While Wrapping Up 2017
I was in the supermarket when I heard it. This holiday… You’ll be far away…And I’ll be all alone. So please remember this December to fully charge your phone.
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•November 29, 2017
Semi-Annual Rotating of the Gear, Holiday Wave Wrap and New Holgate Jetty
I have found that the key is saying no to leftovers.
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•November 15, 2017
Consistent Swell, Inconsistent Winds and a Governor We Will Never Forget
So, the elections are over and it seems this Murphy character will be our new governor. His opponent, Kim Guadango, could have been the next great leader of the free world, but unfortunately for her…
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•November 1, 2017
If Long Beach Island Waves Were Always as Good as They Were This Year, No One Would Ever Move Away
We all have friends from the Island who live in California, Hawaii, the Outer Banks, and a bunch of other places where the surf is better than here. Or maybe Colorado? It’s a familiar story. They…
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•October 18, 2017
Sandbars Looking Better This Year, Fall Finally Shows Up
The older they get, the better they were. You likely know a few guys who fit that bill on this Island. I find this especially true of surfers from the ’70s who rode that long, hazy wave into the…
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•October 11, 2017
A Season of Ideal Conditions for Local Events and Finally Some Windswell
You have to hand it to those runners on Sunday.
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•October 3, 2017
Long Stretch of Waves Where We Got Nothing Done, Except Amazing Community Rum-Raiser
Well, now that that’s over, maybe we can get something done?
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•September 26, 2017
Why All the Single Ladies Should Be Flocking to a Few Blocks on LBI and Related Surf Happenings
It’s felt a bit like Walmart on Black Friday out there, and I’ve heard a lot of folks getting pretty fired up over it. The best surfers will usually find their waves, but even if you’re snagging the…
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•September 20, 2017
A Hurricane Season That Feels a Lot Like 1996
“Baby you’re a big blue whale … Grab the reef when all duck diving fails. I swim, but wish I’d never learned. The water’s too polluted with the germs ….” Are you a Badfish, too? Come on. Sing it with…
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•September 13, 2017
Feeling Guilty for Scoring Hurricane Waves While Others Got Shelled?
There is nothing that giveth so much and takes away so much as hurricanes. We have been on the receiving end of the glory for a few weeks now. But sometimes, when we’re paddling out, or we’re…
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•September 6, 2017
One Fantastic String of Waves and One Scary Storm Coming Across the Atlantic
I have some beach badges for sale. I’ll throw in a really nice pair of solar eclipse glasses.
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•August 30, 2017
Floods, Drilling and Surf Access, But It’s Not All Heavy as We End Summer
So this weekend, my bud pulls up on the beach with the greatest homemade beach cart ever. Like a lot of local surfers, his kids are growing up. And like most of us, he wants to raise little watermen.…
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•August 16, 2017
Another Weekend of Great Waves as Tropics Come Alive … and Nazis
I’m actually going to apologize for two things. First off, I’m sorry if this column is going to delve into matters besides surfing this week. I know some waveriding folks get all uptight about that.…
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•August 9, 2017
Best Disciplines for an LBI Summer Olympics; Looking Back at a Glorious Weekend
On the beach Sunday night, just after the sunset and that gorgeous full moon came rising over the ocean, I was sitting with a bunch of folks who were trading tales of incidents during their workouts…
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•August 2, 2017
How to Not Be Trashy and the Summer Nor’easter Wrap-Up
For those who didn’t notice, we had a major turn in the weather last week. If you’re a sun worshipper down for a few weekends a year, it hasn’t been exactly epic. But for surfers and those of us who…
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•July 26, 2017
Some Beach Gear Recommendations Short of the Kitchen Sink, Adjusting Expectations for Summer and ‘Oh, That Warm Water’
There’s a lot you learn when you have a kid. You learn patience. You learn about yourself. And eventually, you learn that you need to bring a whole lot more crap with you to the beach.
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•July 19, 2017
Celebrating Surfing Freedom in Surf City and Little-Wave Love
Well, it’s official. As of Monday, Surf City -our Surf City, the one here on LBI in New Jersey -is going to have a trial period to allow surfing outside the flags on all beaches. The borough council…
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•July 12, 2017
The Kids Are All Right (or Are They?), Surf City Surf Access, a Famous Beach Chair and Warmed-Up Waves
I’m not sure how many people know this, but there is a church bus that brings kids to LBI beaches from Forked River. It’s been doing this for years.
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•July 5, 2017
Surf City Answers the Question, Freaking Freezing Water, Fewer Groms, and Our State Government Is Brilliant
WE ASKED, SURF CITY ANSWERED: Last week in Liquid Lines, we discussed the rumblings among surfers and beachgoers at large about Surf City opening all of its beaches to surfing outside the flags. As…
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•June 28, 2017
Living Out the Empty Wave Fantasy and a Question for Surf City
Whenever I’ve beenon a tropical surf trip, my friends and I have always had this crazy fantasy that the water temp would drop.
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•June 21, 2017
What’s Cool to Ride in 2017? Pretty Much Anything
“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”
