Jersey Shore to Dr. Beach: Who cares?

So, Dr. Beach (a.k.a. Stephen P. Leatherman), not one of the beaches along New Jersey's 127-mile coastline is good enough to make your 2009 Top 10 list of the best beaches in the country?

Well, Dr. Beach, Jersey's got two words for you: Who cares?

No one basking yesterday beneath a bright-blue sky on the Garden State's sugary-sand strands seemed to give a seagull's behind about whether you think places like Cape May, Stone Harbor, Sea Isle City, or Margate should make your list.

So what if Jersey's beaches don't rank up there with high-falutin' Hanalei Bay, Kauai, Hawaii - your top pick? Or Siesta Beach in Sarasota, Fla., or Beachwalker Park on Kiawah Island, S.C.?

OK, they're pretty.

But, hey, low blow on Coopers Beach in Southampton, N.Y., and Main Beach in East Hampton, N.Y. Really, come on: New York? None in Jersey, but two in New York?

If the beaches are so great there, how do you account for all the New York cars clogging up the Garden State Parkway?

In Ocean City, where folks are still high off the buzz of being named New Jersey's best beach this week in a survey taken by the New Jersey Marine Sciences Consortium - presumably people who know a thing or two about Philadelphia's and New York's favorite vacation spots - people actually laughed yesterday at the snub.

And someone even wondered if your little list could be considered a copycat to the Top 10s offered for years by a similarly named, but far more famous, late-night talk-show host.

"Who? Dr. Beach? Leatherman? Never heard of him," said Shaun Miller, 23, an Ocean City surfer, who says he has been all over plying his craft, but likes best the rips and waves of home. "Sounds like a copycat to me, so who cares what he's saying?"

The Miami-based researcher and director of Florida International University's Laboratory for Coastal Research stands by his choices.

"It's really hard to be on the Top 10 list, let's face it," said Leatherman, who has been issuing his sometimes-scathing report since 1991, using 50 criteria including sand quality, cleanliness, safety, and available facilities.

But given issues like water temperature, how did Coast Guard Beach in Cape Cod, Mass., make the list? Average summertime water temperature trails Cape May's by at least 10 degrees.

And you think the Jersey Shore's overdeveloped? Have you seen California? Coronado Beach in San Diego came in No. 4, but Leatherman considers its neighbor, Border Field State Park, where raw sewage from Mexico's Tijuana River sweeps in at high tide, America's worst beach.

"I really don't care what a list like that says," said Fran Stafford of Bensalem, who retired to Cape May a few years ago and spends as much time as she can on the town's beaches with her children and grandchildren.

"I love Cape May. I think New Jersey has some of the most beautiful beaches in the entire world."

Janet and Jeff Gruber, visiting Cape May from Boyertown, Pa., agreed.

"I never listen to surveys and lists like that," Janet Gruber said. "We know what we like, and that's why we come here. I could care less what anybody else says."

In Sea Isle City, the sentiment was a bit more vehement.

"He can take his list and shove it where the sun don't shine," said Frank Montana, an "over-40" South Philly native who has been staying in Sea Isle his entire life. "This state has 120 miles of the best coastline anywhere, and he can't find one beach he likes? Who cares?"

Bethann Golden, 23, of Philadelphia, sunning herself yesterday in Margate, wondered whether Leatherman had ever visited New Jersey.

"I'm sure the beaches he picked are nice, but it's all personal choice about what makes a Top 10," Golden said.

Well, yes, Dr. Beach has visited New Jersey.

"I like Long Beach Island a lot," Leatherman said. "It probably has the finest sand and clearest water in that area. It's really quite nice."

But not nice enough to make his list.

"Oh, well, the upside of not being on his list is that it doesn't become overcrowded with people who read the list and want to come here," a philosophical Stafford said. "It can be a nice secret."

1. Hanalei Bay,

Kauai, Hawaii

2. Siesta Beach, Sarasota, Fla.

3. Coopers Beach, Southampton, N.Y.

4. Coronado Beach,

San Diego

5. Hamoa Beach,

Maui, Hawaii

6. Main Beach,

East Hampton, N.Y.

7. Cape Hatteras,

Outer Banks, N.C.

8. Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne, Fla.

9. Coast Guard Beach, Cape Cod, Mass.

10. Beachwalker Park, Kiawah Island, S.C.

SOURCE: Stephen P. Leatherman

of Florida International University's Laboratory for Coastal ResearchEndText