Blogfinger

Lifeguards at the Ocean Grove beach during tournament.. Paul Goldfinger photo  (2014) Click to make bigger.

Ocean Grove Beach 2022.   A professional photo shoot is taking place. Paul Goldfinger photo from the pier.. You can imagine the rear view.  Where will she hang her beach badge?  Nobody stopped the  photographer.  

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger. 2021.

The OGCMA’s Beach Regulations have not been changed much since we first looked at them in 2021. We are going more or less by the rules expressed currently on the CMA web site:  OceanGrove.org/beach.  (2023)

A mailing was sent out in  2021  for those who wanted to obtain  beach “tags” for 2022.   If you ordered by mail, there would  be a $7.00 mailing fee.  You had to sign and return a card which promised that you would “follow all of the beach rules and regulations.”

In 2023 I ordered badges on line, and there were no rules to sign..  And the web site does not mention signing any rules pledge.

I wonder how many of you have actually read the rules.   If you haven’t, here are some that are of particular interest.

Note that the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting  Association  controls most of these rules, not the Neptuners, even though the beach, boards, and parks are considered “public thoroughfares.” And it is not clear as to how the CMA  enforces the rules.   Note that the new pier has its own rules posted on the boardwalk.

The  2021 list below is stated somewhat differently now, but is essentially the same.  Now they ban alcohol (a Neptune ordinance) and they don’t mention smoking. And there are rules about canopies or tents.

You can see the complete  list at OceanGrove.org. Below are the rules and regs which we find particularly interesting at Blogfinger.net, and we editorialize  about  some of them:

1. You may not swim at the North End beach because it is reserved as the “primary surfing beach.” Is this fair?
2. You must “obey lifeguards at all times.”  So if you are a sweet young thing in a bikini, you may not want to agree to this rule.
3. No electronic music unless you wear headphones.   But how about other sources of noise such as loud parties or loud talk or sports radio?
4. Children under age 12 must be accompanied by an adult.  Will you parents with precocious, brilliant kids restrain them from going to the beach without adults if lifeguards are present?
5. No disrobing or changing clothes on the beach.  Heck, that is a popular spectator sport.
6. No burying persons below grade or in standing position.  Does this mean that both the buryer and the buryee cannot be standing?  Do the same rules apply if you are burying a dead person? No hole deeper than 12 inches. And what does “below grade” mean?
7. Sports fishing is allowed in “locations not being used for bathing or surfing.”  Is this clear?
8. No flying kites over beach or boardwalk.  Is that 24/7 or only while the lifeguards are there?
9. Only service dogs are allowed on the beach or boardwalk.  Do they mean year-round? Dogs are permitted on-leash off-season.
10.  No bikes, skateboards or skates except between 3 am to 10 am  (Neptune ordinance in season)   Why is Neptune Township writing this rule?   The CMA is empowered to make rules for the beach and boardwalk.  The CMA has jurisdiction over those areas.
11.  No smoking on the beach.  CMA allows smoking in their parks, but they probably made this specific area smoke-free because people pay to get on; they don’t pay to visit the parks, including Auditorium Square Park which, strangely, allows smoking despite the big wooden structure next door.  I guess you can smoke on the boardwalk??
12. Ball playing, Frisbees,  sports activities permitted “as conditions allow.” (Define this term)
13. No sleeping or camping overnight.
14. No throwing sand.
15. No activity which may endanger the safety of others.
16. No open fires, but the CMA has night bonfires.
17. No fishing in bathing areas.  (? 24/7)
18. Beach badges if over 11 years old
19. Below  is interesting in this age of thong bathing suits:

“The standard for the application of the terms ‘indecent exposure’, ‘inappropriate display’, ‘abusive act or language’ as used in the preceding sentence shall be generally accepted standard for the community of Ocean Grove in keeping with the stated purpose of the Association being to provide and maintain for members and friends of the Methodist Episcopal , now United Methodist Church,, a proper, convenient and desirable permanent Camp Meeting Grounds and Christian seaside resort.’”

But there are no such standards for the “community of Ocean Grove.”    In fact there is no “community of Ocean Grove.”  Perhaps the standards  referenced are those of the Camp Meeting Association which do not exist in writing.

Therefore, the idea of “indecent exposure” cannot be enforced.  Any lawyer want to weigh in on this?

So, who is the party of the first part?   Well,  you get the idea.  There are more such rules and regulations;  you have to decide which ones you want to obey fully, which ones you will gracefully ignore, and which ones you will obey selectively.  We don’t claim to have posted every rule that exists; go to OceanGrove.org for more info.

But they did send one of their enforcement goons to demand that I stop photographing by the Pavilion and even on the beach.

Oh, and who gets to enforce all these rules, especially if they are 24/7?

And how does the CMA insure equal justice under the law?   And how does Neptune get involved if their ordinances are challenged, such as no alcohol and bike/scooters  violations?

JOHNNY DEPP and HELENA BONHAM CARTER  “By the Sea” from Sweeney Todd-the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.  Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics 1979)

“By the sea, Mr. Todd, that’s the life I covet
By the sea, Mr. Todd, ooh, I know you’d love it
You and me, Mr. T, we could be alone
In a house what we’d almost own

“Down by the sea, anything you say
Wouldn’t that be smashing?

“With the sea at our gate, we’ll have kippered herring
What have swum to us straight from the Straits of Bering
Every night in the kip, when we’re through our kippers
I’ll be there slipping off your slippers”