Beginner Lessons in New Jersey

New Jersey gets written off as a surf state, which is exactly how the locals like it. The coastline runs open to the Atlantic from Sandy Hook in the north down to Cape May at the southern tip, and the barrier islands and jetties in between carve that raw ocean energy into a long menu of breaks. A grinding nor'easter or a swell fired off some distant hurricane usually leaves something rideable somewhere along the shore.

The bones of the place are sand, mile after mile of beach break, stitched together by rock and old wood jetties that focus and shape the peaks. Monmouth County towns like Manasquan and Belmar draw the crowds when winter swells stack up. Down the central coast, Long Beach Island is all shifting sandbars, and on the right day those bars line up long, workable walls. Ocean City and Cape May sit more open and exposed to the south, changing character with every shift in swell direction.