Anyone pay for a badge?Just found out my beach is charging $90 for a season pass this summer.Usually I sneak in an early session without buying a badge and the guards leave me alone.Kind of sad when alot of other beaches in other states don't even charge you for a badge.
most beaches let you on free with a surfboard..... i never pay for the beach **** that..im there all year round i refuse to pay.. let the bennys pay
so... so you have to pay to go in the ocean? wtf?! can't believe i didn't know about this. civil disobedience man, f that noise. seriously that's some hammer and sickle bullsh!t. i'm getting pissed just thinking about it lol. i'm guessing this is a jersey thing (never surfed up there)? sorry you guys gotta deal with that. what would they do if you just told 'em to f@#$ off? just curious. lifeguards are bad enough, this is just crazy.
you can be arrested in many (most) towns for belligerent non-compliance. it's a law, unfortunately. luckily, the law only applies to the section of the beach west of the mean high-tide line. below that is public land & they can't charge you to be there, nor can they require you to have a badge to access that portion of public lands. it belongs to everyone. (the sad drawback of this is that the hitler youth badge checkers don't know this...i have seen them chase people into the water to check for a badge). while tags are required after age 12 in ocnj, i have never once bought a beach tag in my life. i see this ending either this summer or in subsequent seasons, tho. having summers mostly off now, i am spending significantly more time on the beach than in previous years. taking a stand just isn't worth the attendant hassle anymore. i go to the beach to relax & read a book, not argue w/ 12 year olds. that's what the internet is for.
Well said Well put sir! I guess you're right about the 'it's not worth it" part, but it still irks me. That one glorious year in NorCal spoiled me. No lifeguards. No rules. But if you screw up, you're on your own...kinda the way it should be in my dream world.
Hating life It must really suck to be a Jersey dweller- No badges here, in MD, but at the rate things are going it probably won't be long before some councilman gets that brilliant idea.
I hate the beach. Love the water... hate the beach. To me, it's just an annoying stretch of sand between the parking lot and the surf. I'm not a "beachgoer" or a "sunbather." And I'm not bashing anyone who is. The town needs the revenue. But my attitude is, don't make me buy a beach badge because I have to cross the beach to get to the water... to fish or surf. I've usually been able to explain this to the tag checkers, and haven't had a problem. I'm not lugging a chair, umbrella and cooler, so it's obvious nobody will give the tag checker a hard time because I'm sitting on the beach without a tag. But there are those instances where I've been stopped. In those cases, I just kindly walk away and find someplace just down the beach where I can do my civil disobedience and sneak on. Nobody chases you... they don't want to put out the effort.
re-read my post. as long as you stay below the mean high tide line, they cannot legally prevent you from crossing the beach to use the free public lands. surf-fishing can get a little hazy that way, b/c sometimes when you're fishing, you wander up above the tide line & then you would need a tag. but really, the best times to fish are usu. before or after "beach hours" when tags are enforced. same goes w/ surfing.
The only reason we buy badges are for the days we want to sit on the beach ($65 for seasonal in Asbury). If I'm just surfing, I don't pay for a tag anywhere. Regardless of the town's rules, I'm not paying to access the water. I've experienced resistance before, but I'm usually nice about it and tell them I won't be lingering on the beach. I just paddle out, surf, paddle in, and leave.
fun fun fun i'm sure there are lots of ways to have fun with this. along a similar Stalinist development in VA beach, they decided to put parking meters EVERYWHERE, almost impossible to stash your car somewhere while you surf without dropping 3-4 bucks. It's not like I can't afford it, but it's the principle of paying to go in the water. Sure, "it's about supporting the city's crumbling financial situation, blah blah blah." No. Bullsh!t. It's about propping up a local government that couldn't manage a goldfish aquarium. I digress...so what I started doing is parking at the meter spots: go check the waves, take a piss, change, talk on the celly, read a Nancy Drew novel or two, then FINALLY, as I'm about to go paddle out, throw all my loose change in the machine. And by loose change, I mean every dime, nickel, penny, and peso I can find. The more wax-covered the better. Hopefully one day that pinko Commie contraption will break because of all the crap I've thrown in there. The meter maid always sits there like a vulture the whole time, but they never say anything. Everybody is so afraid of confrontation these days that you can pretty much get around the stupid sh!t by being assertive. I'm sure it would be much more fun though to actually deal with retard "beach badge" enforcers. Any good stories out there? I know there must be, you Jersey guys do some funny sh!t, please share! Aloha, Matt
LBI last year - saw like a 45 year old dad get in trouble by a badge checker. The guy was playing catch with his little girl and the badge checker told him that "ball playing" was not allowed. The guy said something like "what are you the fun police", so the badge checker got one of those summer time rent-a-cops to come over and cite the guy. Lame Beach Island!
I was told by a checker that the tag is required "to use the beach" in Ocean Grove, where the beach is actually managed and regulated by a private enterprise - the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association. So... I checked. And sure enough, these bible bangers can actually keep you from crossing the beach to get to the ocean because the beach is technically private. The rules actually state tags must be purchased and produced to anyone who asks to see it "for use of the bathing beach" and in order to cross it, you need to "use" it. My solution to the problem... walk a few steps down the boardwalk, to the border between Asbury and OG, and cross the beach there... saluting the checker as I do so.
yea, private beaches are their own ball game...they "own" the beach, so the normal rules don't apply. town-run beaches, however, are governed by a different set of rules & laws. but i have never understood the concept of "owning" the beach in the literal sense.
Dude....your "solution" should have been kept quiet. Why would you go and explain in detail on how to get on? Stay up in LB... PLEASE!
Yea... sure... sorry to blow up your secret spot. Ha! BTW... the same "solution" works everywhere, brother. I recommend we all try it.
ear plugs? throw on some big sunglasses and carry a white cane. they'll think you're blind and leave you alone. walk to a nice spot, ditch the costume and go surf. nobody wants to mess with the blind guy. it's just not nice. or you could just play the nutjob. don't even acknowledge the guy until he actually touches you, then freak out like a crazy person. so many possibilities. i almost want to drive up there just to try it out!
