Liquid Lines
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•August 17, 2022
ALO Longboard Classic Checks All the Boxes as Beyer Takes the Win; Waves and Weather Do a Switch
It’s going to take more than cold water, understaffed shifts, small waves and humidity to bum out LBI’s surf community this summer. In the past several weeks, we have seen all smiles at the Jetty…
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•August 11, 2022
Sharing Surfing Can Be a Powerful Thing, So Can Upwelling in August
Hopefully your family is having a good summer. Now that the sandbars have formed, hopefully the kids are running across the flats at low tide and flopping into the water. (That is, when there aren’t…
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•August 3, 2022
Beach Haven’s Skate Park Meeting Was Love Fest; Warmer Ocean Temps, Waves of Strength This Weekend
Does anyone remember a somewhat wild public forum at Surf City’s St. Thomas of Villanova Church in the mid-2000s about the beach replenishment projects that were coming to LBI? That one got heated.…
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•July 30, 2022
Ocean Water Chilled as Jetty Coquina Jam Heated Up
The ocean temps are cold – like really, really cold … like someday you may not be able to have children cold. And that’s the obvious topic of conversation east of the bridge during the summer.
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•July 20, 2022
Season of the Groms; Bermuda High Is Weather Pattern, Not Smoke Shop
Yeah, let’s talk flowers. There are several mile markers along the road of summer, and we’ve just passed one. The peak of the tall, orange “common daylily,” as it’s called, marks a very specific…
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•July 14, 2022
Surfer Awareness Can Help Lifeguard Shortage; Fun Runs of Small Surf
Seems there’s a situation on the Island this summer we’ve not really had before and it would probably benefit everyone if surfers and general water folk had an awareness of it.
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•July 7, 2022
Wind-Driven Water Temps Tell Tale of Two Weekends in One
It seems that LBI was mostly the capital city of fun this weekend from Monday’s symphony of amateur pyrotechnics and ambulances. First of all, how is Independence Day already behind us? April and May…
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•June 30, 2022
Surfing Trifecta of Waves, Warm Water and Sandbars With a Side of Social Justice
So, a couple of good things happened this week and a couple of setbacks. If you’re into surfing on LBI, there was reason to be excited like we’ve not had in some time.
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•June 24, 2022
Summer Tips, Hacks and Cheat Codes With Surf Events Stacking Up
For all the hype of Memorial Day, it always feels a little premature for the starting gun, as it’s followed by a few slow weeks where the Island can be heard catching its collective breath. The…
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•June 16, 2022
Weather Voyeurism and Sand’s Slow Return
As those who live close to the coast, do we love a good storm more than others?
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•June 9, 2022
Hurricane Season’s Start Reminds Us of Its Legends and Lore; Cold Front to Boost Swell
Hurricane season officially started last Wednesday. We had our first storm named on Sunday, and by Tuesday, our first tropical waves of the year were arriving at our shores.
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•June 5, 2022
A Good Holiday Weekend by All Metrics, the Ultimate Summer Sandwich and the Nature of Shifting Sands
Well, that was some holiday weekend, going by all the metrics.
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•May 26, 2022
Mixed Bag of Swell This Week and an Island for Sale
It really doesn’t matter if you’re busting out of 11th grade with a fresh driver’s license and a new twin fin or waxing your sailboat as you ready for your 90th summer on LBI, there’s a feeling of…
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•May 19, 2022
Coining the Term ‘Maysery,’ and Other Musings on Terrible Run of Surf and Weather
Since 2008, I have built this column by reporting, editorializing, hypothesizing and explaining the way that the weather, waves and climate of coastal New Jersey can create such pure joy and abject…
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•May 5, 2022
Beach Haven Skatepark Talk Grinding, Mother’s Day Nor’easter Could Really Blow
So, the numbers are in. New Jersey recreational cannabis retailers made about $2 million the first day they were open, on April 21.
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•April 25, 2022
‘May the Fourth’ Be With You as State Bag Ban Starts May 4; Surf Moments Far Between
May the Fourth be with you … especially this year.
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•April 9, 2022
Our Weekly Friday South Swell and a Global Surfing Gentrification Issue That Hits Close to Home
You see, last Monday every columnist in America received an email from the American Content Editorial Society. (We call ourselves the ACES.) I believe that Jay Mann, Monique Demopoulos and Tom Farner…
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•March 24, 2022
Little Bit of Lion This March; Meteorological vs. Astronomical Calendar Geek-Out
Everyone knows that January is the time for sledding in the dunes around these parts. Crabbing is hottest in June. In September, we get jazzed about hurricane swells. November is when the big…
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•March 10, 2022
An Extra Hour of Daylight, Extreme Temperature Gradient and South Swell on the Horizon
Has anyone else Googled Archduke Franz Ferdinand this past week?
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•February 23, 2022
When Every Day Is Windsday: Outlook on Windy Swell and Weeks
There is nothing so soothing as a gentle breeze by the seashore … or so we are told.
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•February 10, 2022
Late Look at a Postcard Winter Storm; Current No. 1 Surfer Is 50 Years Old
The January Blizzard of ’22, Winter Storm Kenan, the Rogan Nor’easter – whatever you want to call it – we haven’t had a storm like that in some time. And yes, I know it’s now well in the rearview. In…
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•January 17, 2022
2022 Could Be the 2021 We Always Wanted … Probably … Maybe?
I can never be sure who reads Liquid Lines, especially in January, and the first column of the year. But I have a feeling this will reach a good number of eyeballs since half of Ocean County is…
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•December 22, 2021
Planning Your Holiday Surf Session and a ’21 Rewind
Well, five pop-up holiday marts, one sunny parade, 3 pounds of peppermint bark, six trips to the surf shop, a few conversations about Danner, Dasher and Omicron visiting and we’re already at the…
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•December 9, 2021
Time, Tide Wait for No Man (Neither Does Santa)
’Twas the night after Thanksgiving when all through the little boroughs of Long Beach Island, we were bundling up in hopes that St. Nick soon would be there, arriving by a 20-foot center console.
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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 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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•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 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 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 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…
