Visibility, water, current, and wind. The in-water read.
The spot
What this place is
The things that stay true when the weather changes.
Getting in
Shore access, walk in off the sand
Best conditions
Divers enter over the rocks where the bulkhead meets the south jetty and go only at slack water; the current runs hard through the rest of the cycle. For anglers the fall mullet run from mid September brings bluefish blitzes into the inlet, and striped bass move through in spring and again in fall.
Getting through the gate
The swimming beaches are badge beaches. Jenkinson's, the private boardwalk beach, sells season badges at $130 for age 12 and up, with a $95 senior rate at 65, and day badges at $14 on weekdays and $15 on weekends; children under 12 are free with an adult, and swimming stops when the lifeguards go off duty. The borough's Maryland Avenue beach listed its own badge at $145 a season, $85 for seniors, or $18 a day for 2025. The inlet jetty is fishing and diving access with no badge.
Parking
Metered on-street parking from March 1 through October 31, seven days a week, by coin or card meter or a numbered pay-by-space slip. Spots near the south jetty are scarce.
State regulation confines diving in Manasquan Inlet to within 50 feet of the stone jetties and bulkheads, and only east of a line from Ocean Avenue in Point Pleasant Beach to First Avenue in Manasquan (N.J.A.C. 13:82-3.17).
On site
lifeguard on duty
Watch for
Boat traffic through the inlet channel can be extremely heavy, right beside the jetty dive and casting range, The concrete jacks at the seaward end of the jetties are deadly in a surge; people have died pinned between them by waves, Tidal current runs hard outside the slack window at the jetty, and the current under the railroad bridge upstream is also strong at anything but slack
When is the best time to get in at Point Pleasant Beach, NJ?
Divers enter over the rocks where the bulkhead meets the south jetty and go only at slack water; the current runs hard through the rest of the cycle. For anglers the fall mullet run from mid September brings bluefish blitzes into the inlet, and striped bass move through in spring and again in fall.
Where do you park at Point Pleasant Beach, NJ?
Metered on-street parking from March 1 through October 31, seven days a week, by coin or card meter or a numbered pay-by-space slip. Spots near the south jetty are scarce.