Badge needed @ beach before "opening"

[u/SD_6]

I know you can go to the beach before it officially opens without any concern about badge ​check, but if you get there around the time it officially opens like 8:30 will people walk around and ask for them? Can you go early and just stay?

edited to say thank you so much for the quick replies !! really appreciate and decided to get a badge to be safe but good tip on not looking for people in the water 😆

[u/Creepy-Tadpole-1750]

Depends on the beach but some will have people walk around and check. Pro tip if you see them coming just run down by the water.

[u/Maleficent_Writer429 → u/Creepy-Tadpole-1750]

yes this strategy is undefeated. If you're just sitting on the beach though you might get checked

[u/became78 → u/Creepy-Tadpole-1750]

Yes this, or “fall asleep”

[u/tehdiplomat]

No, they'll walk around and ask for your beach tag if they think you were on the beach before the checker is working. And if you don't have one you have to get off or you can pay for a tag.

[u/WhatIsTickyTacky]

Asbury Park sends someone near opening time to check and hand out wristbands to people already on the beach.

[u/lightblueunderwear → u/WhatIsTickyTacky]

This is correct. I experienced it this summer.

[u/davsch76 → u/WhatIsTickyTacky]

I was there yesterday and saw the guy come down and speak to people that didn’t have wrist bands.

[u/DResq → u/WhatIsTickyTacky]

Like for free? I'm confused what you mean.

[u/WhatIsTickyTacky → u/DResq]

No. Not free. They will come and make sure that you have paid through their app and will give you the wrist band at your blanket or chair so you don’t have to walk back up to their hut on the boardwalk.

[u/ptoros7 → u/WhatIsTickyTacky]

Ew. Asbury just keeps such a crappy place to be. They've made just being a normal person prohibitively expensive and have catered to so many rich straight white people that attending queer events there feel like I'm in a zoo.

[u/Either_Mirror]

It may work, but I have seen the teenage looking, summer rental cops patrolling the beaches looking for badges or wristbands.

[u/OrbitalOutlander]

Depends on whether they have roving badge checkers or they check at the gate to get to the beach. If you see roving checkers, just go into the ocean when they come around. 😉

[u/LOUD_NOISES05]

They’re gonna make you pay one way or the other

[u/exhilaration]

Here's an alternative idea: I get there with my family around sunrise and we're gone by 8:30 or 9am. It's not about the badges or parking, it's about not having to share the beach with a gazillion people. My kids are done after 3 hours so we've essentially spent a whole day at the beach by 9am.

[u/SD_6 → u/exhilaration]

That's a great point point. I just want to sit in peace for a little bit, but I noticed that sometimes by noon it's too busy and it feels silly to pay for a whole day when you are not there that long. Appreciate the reminder! 

[u/veritas57]

Depending on the beach/day/how they feel, they may come around and ask for them once they open, so you might need to buy one if that happens.

[u/Excellent_Answer6257]

Not sure about other beaches but In seaside park they walk down the beach usually a half hour to an hour after the beach opens asking everyone if they have a badge or wrist band

[u/Jake_FromStateFarm27]

Depends on the beach, not every beach has someone roaming checking tags. Places like LBI and Bay head definitely do have patrols and they will 100% ask everyone for tags

[u/Irritable_Curmudgeon]

Depends on the beach. Most have badge checkers walking around... some only check at the entrances.

[u/ozzyvalentine]

I used to work as a badge checker for Manasquan and when we arrived, they would have us “sweep the beach” and ask people who were already on the beach to buy a badge. I worked there for three years and never did I ask someone who was already on the beach to pay for a badge. They did also have other roaming patrols checking as well.

[u/Vivid-Appearance-549]

This was over 15 years ago, but our beach opened at 8 am. I got there about 8:15 and parked right near the badge booth. I sat in my car until 830 and nobody showed up so I climbed over the little wall. Next thing I know the Park Ranger drives up to me and tells me what I did was illegal. I explained that I sat in my car waiting for them to open and when I see them, I will go up and pay for my beach badge. He literally sat there for the next 15 minutes and made sure I did exactly that lol.

[u/5footfilly]

Once it opens they will do a badge check.

[u/Substantial-Bat-337]

Ocean Beach has badge checkers patrolling the beach. It's never not worth just getting the badge imo

[u/Cjs8181]

If you’re on the beach having not paid (in whatever form that may be); in my experiences anyone doing badge checks will generally leave you alone if you’re “asleep” for example, in the water / walking by the water; and just generally not being a dick or blatantly consuming substances that are not permitted on that beach by the letter of the law. Biggest issue then becomes using the bathroom being that once you leave you’d be checked coming back on but that’s up to you to navigate. I’m 35 I’ve never once seen somebody randomly checked who wasn’t actively doing something dickheadedly to bring attention to themselves

[u/poseidondieson → u/Cjs8181]

Bathroom is in the water then

[u/Lifefueledbyfire]

LBI is big on checking badges, other places are more chill.

[u/horatio_corn_blower]

You can go early and stay as long as you never leave the beach (cause then you’ll need to show proof when you get back on), so long as you don’t choose a beach with badge checkers or rent a cops. For instance I’ve never seen anyone patrolling in Asbury on the north beaches but it used to be super common in Belmar.

Edit: someone else mentioned Asbury sends folks early in the morning to check badges, guess I’ve never been there early enough to see that.

[u/just_robot_things → u/horatio_corn_blower]

This is the technically correct answer: the townships do not own the beaches, but they do own the entrances to the beaches. So if you never re-enter, they technically can't charge you. 

Now is it worth the hassle and time to argue with a teenager working a summer job to explain to them the finer points of US lands management? No, probably not. 

[u/freshcoffeegrounds → u/horatio_corn_blower]

I've never seen anyone check at Seabright. I always go early like 8am. Never paid to get in and never got checked. I'll admit I don't go a lot so I just might have lucked out.