Roaring wind and surf.  Ocean Grove 10:40 am   10/13/25. Paul Goldfinger photo.  Blogfinger.net.  Click once to enlarge.

By Paul Goldfinger, Editor, Blogfinger.net

It was a gray and miserable morning on Monday, October 13, 2025. A nor’easter was bearing down at the Jersey Shore.  Rain was coming down hard, and the tempestuous wind was raging.

But I decided to drive to the beachfront.  I hoped to get a photo of surfers returning from those massive waves.   But I saw no surfers.

Very few people were around, and a few showed up to take some hurried  photos. One couple took a few quick shots, then they hugged each other and then they hurried to their auto.

George Tice, the famous New Jersey photographer, used a large format camera on a tripod to make his photos. He would disappear under that black curtain and he might spend an hour on one negative.  But he never photographed a tumultuous scene like this.

It was dramatic as massive waves banged into shore and against the pier, and the deafening wind nearly knocked me over as I tried to get out of my car.   But as I took a few steps eastward,  I quickly decided that it was too dangerous.

I took tiny steps heading back to my car telling myself  over and over, “I can do it.”  I truly thought I might fall down, and how would I get up?

Interestingly, the pier managed to stay vertical. What will the structural engineers say about our OG  non-fishing pier being able to withstand the abuse of this nor’easter?

Ironically we posted a piece about the pier just a few days ago:

OG pier Oct. 9, 2025

Looking back:    I was at the pier opening on April 15, 2023.  Even then there were concerns about structural inegrity.

At that time people returning from their walk to the end and back told me that the pier was shaking, so I did an about face and I went down to the beach to get a few shots.  Most photographers were shooting from the boardwalk.

April 15, 2023. New OG pier withstands large crowd of heavy explorers searching for bragging rights.   Paul Goldfinger photo. Blogfinger.net

Here is a link below (xxx)  to our Blogfinger post about the pier dated February 2024:

xxx

BOB DYLAN:   From his album The Essential Bob Dylan.    “Blowin’ In The Wind”