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http://www.state.nj.us/travel/virtual/sandyhook/sandyhook_eco_deck2.html" target="
Papa Magilla was sitting on this eleveted platform drying out his wet socks. They got that way while loading the family boards on the car in a heavy down pour at the Belmar parking lot. So there he is barefoot and soaking up the rays when a mixed, race couple shows up. We start a conversation with them. The brother says most people don't talk to us. I'm thinking how jacked up the human race can be and how my partner is African American & married to an Italian women. As we speak he tells our family about the huge cruise ship that had to wait for low tide to get under the Verazanno Narraws bridge in New York. He say's it has everything on it. " It's the whole Magilla." My wife and daughter look at me. We gab some more and the guy and his wife mossey on. They were friendly people.
My socks are still moist. So I turn them inside out.
By and by a group of about 15 students in an oceanography class arrives. The teacher says, "this is our last stop on the tour. We make room on our bench for a couple of standing students and listen for new wisdom.
The teacher asks the students what is acoss the bay from us. It's Brooklyn. We know this because we read the map sign on the deck. None of the students answers. The instructor says, "that's Brooklyn over there and the shiney building is Cooney Island." Brooklyn is beginning to come out of the fog more now than when we first arrived. We all can see high rises far off almost on the horizon it's so far away.
The next thing he says to his class is that the tip of Sandy Hook is moving every year, He asks the class how far do you think it is growing each year? Silence. He answers,Sandy Hook is growing 30 feet per year and eventually it will connect to the other side of the bay,but that is not going to happen. Why do you think it won't happen? A student says, "it's a shipping channel."
"That's right, it's one of the major shipping lanes in the U.S. and it won't ever be allowed to continue to grow," says the teacher.
Then he says something amazing. "Do you see that breaking wave out there? It's a reef where waves break far off shore. A year ago a couple of surfers who got ahold of a bathometry chart noticed that the water is deep around that reef, and saw that sometimes the waves get big there. On one big day they tried to row out there when the waves were very high. Since then they have taken jet skies out there.
I interject, "surfers are riding waves like that around the world now and that we have a place like Sandy Hook in Lake Erie called Long Point and Presque Isle State Park.
The teacher asks,"how long do you think it took to form Sandy Hook?"I ask him if I can make a guess. He nods yes. I guess, "8 million years." He says, "it took 1000 years to form Sandy Hook."
About that time my step daughter says, "can we go now?" With egg on my face I nod yes and say goodby to the oceanography class. I placed my socks and shoes on my feet. We got in the car with the stacked and well secured boards and headed back to the parking lot where we saw surfers donning wetsuits on our drive in.
My socks were still moist.
We stopped there and watched the waves coming in and a few surfers riding. Three guys nearby were also watching the surf riding. One of them was holding a cell phone and talking.I looked at my wife and said I'm going in. She looked at me and said, "I'm going in." The daughter said, "I'm going in too."
As we dressed more and more surfer started to arrive.
We got into the water with many surfers. We took turnes catching the waves and everyone was happy till sunset as neck high sets rolled in one after another. I have never had a problem riding on the East Coast or the Great Lakes and that's the way it should be.
When I returned to the car I rummaged through it for my buried bag and found a dry pair of socks, got dressed, secured the boards. My family was ready too and we headed for the open highway as the day turned to night and the rain began to fall again.
