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Editor, Asbury Park Sun,

How did we get here, Asbury Park, 2014? By here we mean a city that is thriving and bustling like a coastal town should, with people buying everything from ice cream cones to luxury condos. And by here we also mean a vocal, critical mass of people who actually care enough to save what is left from development.

The recent dust-up with controversial surfing symbols and a grassroots response of signs should make everyone ask how surfing and development are related at this point in time.

A dozen years ago, surfing was illegal in Asbury Park: not just in the summer, not just on certain beaches, not at certain times of the day. It was illegal to surf in Asbury Park, anywhere, anytime, 24/7/365. It was the only town in NJ outlawing surfing. Until the Surfrider Foundation, Jersey Shore Chapter worked with the Asbury Park mayor and City Council to lift the ban and to establish a designated daytime surfing beach on the north end of town in 2003.

This gave people an early reason to come to Asbury Park. Certainly by then there were development plans and investment had begun. But surfing was part of the equation of getting people to play, work, and live in Asbury Park. Clearly that formula has worked. Surfing is cool, it’s healthy, it connects you to your environment in a unique way, and it depends on a clean accessible beach and an usable ocean environment.

For local families, the Surfrider Foundation began a free day of surf clinics, water safety, and beach activities, which has evolved into Asbury Park Family Day at the Beach. This annual event is supported by local businesses, non-profits, town staff, and elected officials. This further established surfing in the community and not just for visitors.

So is it surprising that after working to establish a place to legally surf, after teaching a generation of local children how to surf, and after constant stewardship of that area through cleanups and dune grass plantings that the surfing community and others would like to turn this area into a permanent park? No it is not.

And is it surprising that the development and investment elsewhere in Asbury Park has created living and working opportunities for those who originally came to play in the surf? No it is not.

When this decade-plus history is considered, one can see a symbiosis of sorts where the local surfing community, the oceanfront economy, and the town in general have evolved together. We will survive and flourish if we recognize the other parts of this whole.

— John Weber, Mid Atlantic Regional Manager

Surfrider Foundation

[This letter represents the opinion of its writer and is not representative of any opinion of the Asbury Park Sun staff. All readers are welcome to submit Letters to the Editor to news@asburyparksun.com for our consideration. For guidelines on letter-writing and submission, click here. Do not send attachments.]

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