Sea Girt Announces Ban On Digging In The Sand

Just in this morning, the sleepy Jersey shore town of Sea Girt: No digging big holes to bury each other in the sand at Sea Girt beaches this summer. One of America's favorite beach-time activities is apparently off the list for the summer of 2024. And, incredible as it sounds, there's a reason why it makes sense.

The Monmouth County ocean front community of Sea Girt announced this week that there is a new limit for beachgoers on for how deep they can dig holes in the sand. The limit is especially intended to limit the size of a hole for the purpose of burying a child in the sand.

Sea Girt's new regulation for beachgoers is as follows: Holes dug in the sand can't be deeper than 12 inches or as high as the knees of the individuals involved.

Is this just another example of the, "nanny state" run amok? Well, maybe. But the reason for the regulation is the safety of kids at the beach. And, in fact, the safety of adults as well. The walls of a hole dug too deeply in the sand will collapse easily and without warning. The sand collapse will trap anyone in the sand suffocating them nearly immediately.

Back in 2022, a tragic sand collapse took the life of a young man from Maine who clearly didn't know about the dangers of deep holes dug in the sand. This new ordinance is intended to avoid those tragedies.

First responders see the dangers of a beach and the summer season all too many times. Sea Girt joins other Jersey shore towns who already have this regulation. The Monmouth County town of Belmar has the same rules for digging on the beach. So does Seaside Heights.

Thanks for reading. While we're at it, have a look at our pictures from another one of our favorite places on the Jersey shore: Sandy Hook!

It's not a secret.  The tippy top of the Jersey Shore is a pretty spectacular place.  There's so much to do at Sandy Hook.

Fishing, surfing, running, biking, sail boarding, exploring history, wild life watching and even going "full monte" at the only beach north of Florida where you can fully naked!

Today, we're saluting this great treasure of the Jersey shore that puts a magnificent end to the Bay Shore beach areas along the Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays and starts the 130+ mile north to south stretch of Atlantic coast down to Cape May.  Sandy Hook, we love it!

We were fortunate to have a lot of our friends on social media contribute images to our collection.  Others are contributed by the National Park Service!  More pictures will be added as we receive them and process them.

There's lots of places on Sandy Hook where the locals know the surf kicks in. New Jersey has lost the reputation of being "lame" for surfing thanks to our fall and winter seasons.

Interesting pic from our Facebook friend Dana because you can get an amazing sunrise and an amazing sunset - both over the water - at Sandy Hook.