Liquid Lines
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•June 14, 2017
Once and for All: Yes, You Can Love Your Family and Still Surf on Holidays
I’ll start this week by wishing the dads out there a happy Father’s Day, including my own dad, who pushed me into my first waves on a bellyboard almost 40 years ago. My pops had this gorgeous 1966…
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•June 7, 2017
Winners and Losers and Fun Times on LBI
What a relief. We are finally pulled out of that silly Paris Climate Agreement. I was actually losing sleep at night picturing Chinese and Indians (both still in the accord, by the way), people just…
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•May 31, 2017
Strangers on Your Couch, Waves in the Water and Awaiting New Word on Long Beach Township’s Surf Beaches
Was this a great Memorial Day weekend? It certainly wasn’t that bad, depending what kind of metrics you’re using.
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•May 24, 2017
Tips on Getting Ready for Summer, LBI-Style in Prepping for the Big Weekend
And just like that, as if a ribbon were cut or the flood gates opened on the Causeway Bridge, the mad dash to the season is on. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
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•May 17, 2017
Communing With Sea Creatures, Bad Tattoos, Blue Hues and Great May Waves
In addition to addressing swells, tides, wind and results from the women’s 25- to 45-year old 12-foot elite paddleboard division at the latest race, Liquid Lines is a great place to poke fun at…
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•May 3, 2017
If Nordstrom Is Selling Fake Mud-Caked Jeans, We Can Surely Do Better Than That on LBI
There is absolutely no way I could let this one go without sufficient commentary. Last week, the luxury department store Nordstrom released something of a bomb on the fashion world. They’re called…
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•April 19, 2017
Packing for a Trip to LBI Might Make You Crazy in April
There’s this common image that adventure sports marketing has used over the last10 years commonly referred to as the “kit.” Essentially, before a trip, a surfer lays out all the things that he or she…
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•April 4, 2017
Dispelling a Rolling Rumor and Wrapping Up a Great Weekend Swell
I’m going to start this week by dispelling a rumor. There’s scuttlebutt going around (like that term?) that Barnegat Light is going to tear out its skatepark to make room for new pickle ball courts.…
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•March 22, 2017
Was Last Week’s Storm the Best Swell Ever?
Every once in a while Ma Nature comes together to create something truly awe-inspiring in New Jersey. By now, everyone is talking about it. Everyone has seen the video and the photos, the constant…
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•March 8, 2017
Lost in the Winds of Winter, Ecological Death Knell and Talking Beaches
Some folks are anxious for things to start popping again, quietly waiting for those crazy weeks where in between our busy work schedules and summer sand time, we try to pack in every surf contest…
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•February 22, 2017
How Good It Feels to Be Wrong in February
You know how good it feels to be right? It’s that satisfied feeling you get when there’s some kind of controversy and you make your case. Then something happens and you can demonstrably prove that…
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•February 8, 2017
How to Not Look Like a Fat Groundhog When Spring Finally Comes Around
Well, this is it: February, the proverbial “dead of winter,” the polar (in every sense) opposite of LBI’s sunny summertime season. Ain’t no mini golf or sunset cruises. Ain’t no banger wait shifts…
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•January 23, 2017
Fun With ‘Alternative Facts’ – But Our Great Waves Are the Real Deal
I can’t tell you how excited I am that we have entered the age of “alternative facts.” It sure does make my life a lot easier.
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•January 11, 2017
2017 Starts With a Frosty Swell for Waveriders
I don’t always agree with those ancient Mayans. For one, they used to eat dogs.
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•December 14, 2016
Rounding Out 2016 With a Few Swells, Holiday Cheer … and Boobs
When it comes to communicating, I am pretty good about getting back to people. But if you send an email to joncoen@thesandpaper.net, it might take a while.
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•November 30, 2016
A ‘Can-Do’ Dry Cleaner, Waving Goodbye to the Dredges and Getting Ready for a Hearty South Swell
I always like to mention local businesses in Liquid Lines. Usually it’s a surf shop, perhaps an art gallery. Most of the retailers I mention have a direct link to surfing, fishing, events or the…
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•November 16, 2016
One Fantastic November Swell, Holiday Haps and a New Wooden Jetty?
Have you ever been lost? I mean like really lost, driving down some back road at night? Perhaps your kids are in the car. Could be a sketchy neighborhood. Maybe you’re getting no service and your GPS…
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•November 2, 2016
Sucking the Last Bit of Soul From the Surf Industry and Wrapping Up Hurricane Season
More than other regions, folks here seem to support the local economy. Seems like people who live in unique/interesting places usually do. Unless you are living on a sailboat off Holgate, collecting…
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•October 19, 2016
Remembering When We Used to Have Windswell; Weather and Politics Colliding in a Hurricane.
I thought about just passing on this, but I think I have to address it. Since Liquid Lines runs every other week now, I wasn’t sure if this would still be timely. But it turns out, yes, it is.…
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•October 4, 2016
Pintails to Spaghetti Models: All Eyes on Hurricane Matthew This Week
This is one of the hardest columns I have ever had to write.
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•September 21, 2016
Guess Who’s Trying to Ruin a Great Surf Break, Busy BPs, Hurricane Brewing and More
It was 2003 and my first trip to Ireland. It was myself, my brother and our oldest surf buddy, the guy who would come raging into my parents’ house at 4:30 in the morning, over a decade earlier, to…
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•September 14, 2016
Rethink Your Small Dreams, Shifting Sands and a Weekend of Big Events
Well, we waited all summer for this. And here we are, the magic of September. After months of waiting for the heat to subside, the crowds to disperse, and the lights to go off … well, it’s been…
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•September 7, 2016
Lay Off the Weatherman: We Dodged a Bullet and Got Stellar Waves
If you’ve read a Liquid Lines column or two, you know that one thing I like to do here is make fun, or “take the piss,” as our British friends say. I do my best to entertain. And that generally means…
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•August 31, 2016
Long Beach Township Just Opened All Beaches to Surfing, But Where Are Township’s Surf Breaks?
I will admit that there are times I sit down to write this column and I have no idea what to write. Granted, when we have a firing swell or back-to-back summer happenings, it’s a no-brainer. But…
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•August 24, 2016
Looking Forward to the Best Time of Year
I woke up early on Monday morning and stepped outside. Yeah, the birds were chirping, the rain had rejuvenated the plants, the sun was shining, and all that happy nonsense. But I just had this…
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•August 17, 2016
Longboard Classic a Gliding Success, Bumming on Beachfill, All Running Hot and Cold into August
Man, is it great to give credit where credit is due. Alliance for a Living Ocean just did a bang-up job hosting the 8th Annual LBI Longboard Classic in Ship Bottom. This was probably the best event…
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•August 10, 2016
Surfing Will Be in the 2020 Olympics: Do We Care?
The big news in surfing broke last week. Surfing is officially in the Games of the 2020 Olympiad. I’m not sure what’s more daunting, the idea of surfing in the Olympics or just the idea that 2020 is…
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•August 3, 2016
Answer to Beach Litter Is More Hard Alcohol, Feeling Wave Starved and the Slow Lane to Bag Bans
This is a public service announcement. I’m not sure what it is, but in 2016, people still feel it’s acceptable to leave a mess on the beach.
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•July 27, 2016
Laying Down Spear of Insult; LBI Events Not to Miss
I know the intro to Liquid Lines usually has some biting sarcasm, but I don’t know if I’m feeling it this week. It’s not that there isn’t material. I mean, 45 years after Woodstock’s “three days of…
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•July 20, 2016
Holgate Beach Sitch, Heat Wave Injustices, Not-So-Swell Swells, and All the Haps This Week
It’s been hot. Not terribly scorching, but hot. I don’t know that we’ve hit a true 100 degrees on the Island this year, but we’ve gotten up there. It’s certainly steamy compared to last summer, where…
