Low tide, thought I'd snap a pic of an old concrete piling that rears it's ugly head only occasionally, and this sweet little left came through about an hour ago. Note the tips of rebar in the foreground... Might have attached twice, sorry<br /><br />
Interesting. Bob, not sure if you're in NJ or not. But I keep getting questions from non surfers asking me if they think it's going to be dangerous to swim this summer due to debris in the water. I have been surfing all winter since Sandy and haven't bumped into anything in the water so it seems okay. But then again, when I surf I really never touch the bottom so I'm not sure how to answer the question. What's everyone else seeing out there? I'm thinking when the water warms up a bit I might throw a snorkel mask on on a flat day and try to get a good look.
last time I was out on LBI I was up on the north end, and after popping out the back of the wave I spotted what looked like a wooden piling coming out of the water. Looked like it was stuck in the sand and was only exposed after the wave passed over it. Definitely a little sktechy, but that is really all I have seen in terms of debris from Sandy(in the water).
They are doing a lot of construction/repair along the Northern MA and Southern, NH shore. I got a 2ft piece of fence post stuck in 5mm of wetsuit while surfing the other day. It was the type that holds up the bright orange cheese grate construction barriers. Anyways surf was pretty heavy that day and it was bouncing around on the inside. Can you imagine if I didn't have 5mm of body armor? Wetsuit is pretty much done for...
That piling was exposed long before Sandy. I'm in NJ just south of the eye and we didn't suffer the level of Sandy damage here as I've seen further north. The changes in our coastline this year have been WILD though. I've seen lots of small debris and been protected by my suit a few times too. It seemed like Sandy redistributed ridiculous amounts of sand, and then the winter storms kept shifting things around more than usual. But who knows. It's tough to distinguish what causes what with all the beach replenishment, reconstruction, and gov't "shoreline protection" projects here.
I spend a good amount of my time on fishing forums and see a lot or reports of debris washing up. It is inevitable that the beaches are loaded with leftovers from the storm. Hopefully, most of it has been settled and pushed underneath the sand, but who knows. With all these winter storms it is any body's guess as to what the bottom looks like. I'd say that from LBI up is going to be interesting this summer. Numerous boardwalks and houses were washed away, and had to settle somewhere. All it takes is one nail or a single board to cause a nice injury. You could have somebody body boarding a shorebreak and hitting a boardwalk plank in a few inches of water, stepping on a nice rusted roofing nail, etc etc.... Some municipalities have committed to sending in divers to scour the bottoms in their most popular swimming areas, but I just don't know how much that is really going to do. Sand is constantly shifting, and going to cover and uncover a lot of different things through out the summer season
My friend told me that she saw a railroad tie with nails floating in the lineup in Wildwood this winter, and that the dune fence in Strathmere was missing - assuming that it may be in the break. I have my tetanus shot up to date to alleviate some fears of foreign objects. As Kurtz said, " Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared."
I really dont run into much in the water but like someone else said I try and not hit bottom or be in water unless i fall. I ran into a huge rock in LBI and broke my board while duckdiving. I also saw a shopping cart at wooden jetty too but not much.
