The Natives are restless at Old Garden Beach....

[notabob]

Well, as long as OGB is a publicly owned plot of land, the police, or anyone else, cannot force regular divers to leave or prevent their access to the beach or just about any divesite. They would be violating state law if they did. They can, of course, make things really difficult for us in various other ways, which they already do in many places. The resident permit process, while it exists in some other states for beach access, would likely go against state law here in Mass. I'm no lawyer, so I could be wrong about this, but that is my understanding. They could, however, impose the permit process on commercial access to the beach, something that dive classes ran by LDSs would probably fall under.

Someone I talked to recently made a suggestion - every time you spend money on Cape Ann, write "diver" on the bills. Maybe that way the locals will finally start to realize just how much $$ actually is spent by divers there. They might be surprised by what they see.

-Roman.

 

[mer]

large_diver once bubbled...

Mer -- as to why some people dive early......once you're married and have kids, you have limited allotted dive time...;-). My buddy and I usually meet at 7AM when we dive on Cape Ann.

Sounds like a good reason to not get married and/or have kids. Or marry a diver.
hehe (Just being a pain in the a$$)

Priorities man... priorities. ;-)

 

[mer]

notabob once bubbled...
Someone I talked to recently made a suggestion - every time you spend money on Cape Ann, write "diver" on the bills. Maybe that way the locals will finally start to realize just how much $$ actually is spent by divers there. They might be surprised by what they see.

Good idea Roman... I will do that in the future. It's just too bad they don't have liquor stores in Rockport

This whole topic is another reason to start exploring more "off the beaten path" dive sites. Away from the crowds, and away from the crowded locals.

 

[Soggy]

mer once bubbled...
Good idea Roman... I will do that in the future. It's just too bad they don't have liquor stores in Rockport

There are several liquor stores in Gloucester, though!

 

[beaker]

Soggy once bubbled...


There are several liquor stores in Gloucester, though!

Its quite easy, you see. When you go for the weekend, you get an air fill at CAD, walk across the parking lot to the packie there, and then you drive to your favorite local motel where you sit in the hot tub or sauna drinking your beer, with an occasional jump in the pool... (and its all enclosed). A perfect way to spend Saturday evening after a long day of diving and recovering for Sunday morning... D

 

[MASS-Diver]

I guess that's the price you pay when you turn your town into a tourist trap though. I only go there during the week or in the winter because it's so crowded, I feel like I'm on the Vineyard sometimes up there.

I hope we don't get kicked out. I guess all we can do is be courteous and behave w/ some respect to the locals.

Also, I've never really seen the beach that crowded (as compared to beaches down here on the SS) w/ locals? It really doesn't seem to get all that much use as a swimming or sunning spot.

 

[AT Grimaldi]

OGB was the first New England dive I ever did. For that, I have fond memories of bobbing inverted filling my snorkel with sand as I began to understand the wonderful world of buoyance. [that one was for you Chuck].

I do think that we should respect fully the local laws - seems obvious to me at least.

The human feces story seems to be just that - a story. On Nantucket, a town notorious for trying to limit human impact on the natural resources, they put port-a-johns right on the beach to eliminate the problem. Doesn't sound like Rockport politics is that forward thinking. [implication here]

I guess, what I am taking away from all of this talk is - time to buy a boat. hmmmmm.....center console? cabin cruiser? decisions....decisions.....

- AT

 

[PK]

I think this resident group made up some things to make divers look bad in their efforts to not share the beach.

If you think about it, it's only crowded for a couple hours 2 days a week at most. We only use the left side of the beach and there's always open parking spots in their lot. Every time I've been there the divers have been considerate and polite. How do they know we have no impact on the local economy? They don't.

The residents real motive are clear.

 

[bhapps24]

I love the idea of writing diver on recipts and think we can take it one step further which may reach the residents I'll write diver on the 1's 5's 10's and 20's I spend down there. And to make sure it spreads as far as possible I will only use cash no credit. (great idea notabob)

ps I always leave with more trash than I make only cause I care not for PR.