SeaSide Heights - Fishing and Breakwater Beach and Assorted Nonsense - July 24, 2024

The plan was to wake up at 5 AM - head to Seaside Heights ... do some pier fishing and go on some rides.

As I mentioned in another thread if you are going to an amusement and waterpark attraction on a summer weekday, the best thing to do is to "dance around the day camps." Day camps in the area send most of their Grade 3 - 5 kids to smaller and mid size parks where it's easier to coral them. (Rye Playland, Adventureland (Long Island), Casino Pier, etc). Older kids in Grades 5 - 8 tend to go to larger parks, such as Great Adventure, Hershey, Dorney and Splish Splash. Some of these are extended days. In other words, the busses get back after usual camp hours.

If you are going to a small park or water park on a day that camps are going to be there. Try not to get there until later. The "sweet spot" for most camp departures is 2:30 - 3:30. At this point the parks open up, capacity soars and it is truly nirvana.

So...that's what I did. There is a place in Seaside on the bay side that I love to fish. It's called Docs outfitters. It has a a very good restaurant that overlooks the bay, free parking and a free pier to fish from 24 / 7 year round. They sell bait or you can bring your own. It is also a nice place to go crabbing and the place as a whole attracts people from toddlers to 90. Oh...one more thing...a free, clean bathroom. I ended up catching about a dozen spot and had a great time. I didn't need a stand up paddle board, I didn't rent a wave runner, but for many hours I was relaxed and entertained.

I'll skip ahead.

By 2 PM, I started to feel warm and decided to head over to the waterpark. Perfect timing. I parked nextdoor at a meter for $3 per hour and a few moments later I was at my locker...watching a few counselors rounding up their campers for the ride home. About 5 or 6 camps were there and they all were in round--em-up and head-on-out mode. Within 20 minutes, capacity would shrink another 40 percent.

Breakwater Beach has a nice lineup of stuff in its relative small footprint. It does have a wave pool and a river. I actually seized a floating chair in the river. They have single and double tubes and blow-up chairs that have a film of mesh where your....bottom goes and it was VERY comfortable. Great idea Breakwater!

So the river has more of those polyurethane fish that hang our the river to be slapped by passing tubes. When you connect, a series of bubbles rises from underneath and even with the mesh...you feel it. There are also plungers that people watching from the sidelines can activate to send even more bubbles back up your.....bottom. The water quality was good, but it was cold. At least colder than Keansburg's.

To warm up they have two heat pools and they were not very crowded. When you sit on the steps, the in ground jets make you feel like......ahhhhh.... It's funny, again comparing it to Keansburg, their heat pools has jets going on and off every ten seconds. At Seaside...it's all jets, all the time. It made me a Jets fan.

When there are no real lines for slides...you realize how much fun a good waterpark slide is. Just simple, refreshing fun that never gets old. Seaside has nowhere to really expand, but they did upgrade the slides a bit. Some of the old ones were updated with lighting effects that looked cool.

The food at Breakwater Beach looked good. A burger with fries and a soda would come out to $20, but it looked very good in size and quality. I didn't eat one, but the end product looked like it would be something that you wanted to eat...not had to settle for.

There are two areas with tables to eat and there were signs everywhere NOT to feed the seagulls. Unfortunately, seagulls cannot read. They were on patrol including the most tenacious bird I ever met. This guy was standing at the edge of the staircase at the start of the second level. If another bird was to come over, he stormed over to defend his turf. Truthfully, the rebels backed off. This spot was in the line of sight of any dropped french fry or wind blown pizza part that might hit the ground. I saw him pounce twice. He will undoubtably be there first thing in the morning when the park opens tomorrow. By the end of the summer, he will weigh more than me.

Other extras include...a closing time of 6 PM (Wednesdays 8 PM), Movie nights, Mermaid Events, I don't know, but the schedule is longer than Keansburg. There are some blue mats along the floor but they weren't too comfortable to step on in bare feet. There are 2 bars (1 open). The lockers work with the wristbands...which is convenient.

Negatives: Not too many. I like full-sized lounge chairs and there were too few of them. (I got one though!) I thought the music was too loud at points. I also would like heated water for areas other than the hot tub. For what it was and for what it was worth and for what I paid I would give it an 8 out of 10. I would give Keansburg's water park a 4 out of 10.

I ended up taking a short walk on the boardwalk and headed back to Long Island.

Overall, It was a great day. A lot of fish. Some good eats...and a few solid hours at a very good water park.

So watch out for day camp groups and stay away from the bird on the second floor.

And "Thank you" as always for reading this.