Hoping to settle an arguement here. A friend and I are trying to estimate how many " year round" surfers there are in Jersey. People that actually do they're best to get out and surf at least a cpl. times a month all year long. Not that I consider myself a "surfer" because I pretty much stink/ but I do my best to surf all year long so I count myself in there. I'm putting my guess @ 50,000. Living in New Jersey that have all the equipment as well as the desire to surf year 'round. My friend says it's WAY higher...like 250,000. I say he's nutz. Anyone out there care to chime in?? Or has this thread already been done to death and I just missed it? Just seems like there's a whole lot more people in the water now than when I started 13 years ago. That and it's a really boring (and of course..flat) Sat. here in Bradley
"their" not "they're" in this particular case.... so I think 50,000 is waaaaay too high. My guess is that there are probably 1000 people who are year round surfers in dirty jerzey. Although the number of people with wetsuits and winter gear is obviously higher.
i agree, 50,000 sounds way too high, but then again i don't surf in Jerz, so what the hell do i know. I don't think there's 50,000 of us on the east coast that surf...period ...and i am grateful for that.
Hmmm...let's assume there are 500 surfable spots in NJ. That's 1 spot for every 1/4 mile of coastline. Even if 1/2 of your 50,000 surfers spread out over NJ and showed up for a single swell, that would mean each spot would have 50 people. Even on good swells in the Fall when the summer crowds are still in the water I've never seen 150 people in a 1/2 mile stretch of beach. I'm not familiar with southern jerz but in reality how many surf spots are there along the coast? 200? 20 people per = 4,000. That means for every mile and a half of Jerzey shore there are 20 people surfing. During the winter?? Even that seems like a lot of people. I think MFitz is pretty close and I'd guess there are fewer than 2k.
I think 1000 is low. People are busy and at any given time its unlikely that more than 20% of the people who actually DO surf all winter ARE surfing. If we had a decent swell in the middle of the winter there would surely be at least 500 people in the water at once (figure 25 surfable areas/towns with 20 surfers out at each.) Some of them are from out of state, so that's a variable but its unlikely that anywhere near half of all year around surfers would be in the water at one time. I'd put it well over 1000 year round surfers...maybe 2-3 k.
if year-round includes January/February there aren't many. unless it's sunny and warm. a lot of guys go on surf trips to warm spots then
Just got a text from the guy I'm having the argument with. He wrote: "Based on a surfline survey there are 165,000 "surfers" in N.J. (definition being "have caught at least one wave in the last year)...with 130 miles that equals 1,270 "surfers" per mile of coastline... As has been pointed out not every mile is surfable and their definition of "surfers" is not what either he or I had in mind when we started this discussion...but either way it appears I am winning! LOL! It's no where near as crowded as he was saying and I overshot it quite abit myself. But that is sort of how we were trying to come up with a number was our average break on an average winter swell (10-15ish) times mileage of Jersey coastline. (It just SEEMS like all 165,000 are in Bradley on a Sat. in July
Less than 750.......... And I'm talking people who are on it year round - Every swell when they can. Twice a month don't make the cut. From Cape May to Long Beach Island there is only one(maybe two) towns that will see any type of crowd in January. A crowd being twenty or more people at one spot or area. Someone from up north can chime in with their figures for Ocean(other than LBI - that's ours) and Monmouth counties.
LBI during the winter see's some crowd's at the top breaks for sure. I'd say about 100 guys spread out across the island for a big winter day. As for Jersey as a whole... I'd say it must be about 1,500-2,500
I'd say on ANY coast...you'd be lucky to have more than 1000, true year round surfers. A lot of people hang it up in the winter, or cross train for the winter in the summer. But again whats the definition? I'd put is as people who legitimately surf say at least once a week (this is by yearly average cause sometimes its just flat.) Not just guys who pop up once or twice a winter season. Or the guys who hang in the parking lots socializing but never actually surf, that doesnt count either no matter what stories you tell.
Very Cool. I appreciate all the thought you guys put in. I started out my argument with my friend saying it was "the yellow V.W. syndrome"...we surf/ it seems really crowded so therefore everybody in N.J. surfs! I myself figured with 7million ppl. in Jersey there might be 50,000 total surfers with 10% being year round (forgot to add that in my original post..sorry.) But I'm begining to agree with alot of your logic and say even less than 5,000. There really aren't that many "standout spots" (in Mon.Co. I'm thinking Loch Arbor/ Manasquan Inlet/ one or two in SeaGirt/SpringLake/ The L-Jetty/ The Pump House...and that's about 10miles right there. Just something to pass the time while waiting for The Triple Crown to get started back up again! Either way.....I'm movin' to freakin' Maine!!! Thanx again all....2013 is almost over!! Rejoice!!! Aloha!
the cold thins out the nj surfers, and if you are as nuts as we are you surf at least a handful of times a month,every month,go out in subpar conditions even when it's cold.surfers surf a lot,and the cold crap doesn't stop us,we're crazy addicted
Monmouth probably sees 15 surfers per mile of beach in winter, based on my years at Belmar, Spring Lake.
