I agree about the restaurants not the drinking in public laws. I'm sorry but the obnoxious drunk factor is off the charts as it is.
So I was walking up the street at like 5:05. I can see the boardwalk over the dune to the beach from hundreds of yards away. There's a group of people loitering on the walkover, multiple other groups passing them, say 6' wide boardwalk. It takes me a few minutes to walk to the beach, but not to go up and down the stairs over the dune. Some drunk and his toilet are parking (beachfront lots already jam packed with people) and he makes some stupid comment. I can smell the alcohol from the sidewalk; probably got that filth's Rona. Anywho to avoid the imbeciles loitering on the boardwalk, there's a sandpath through the dunes as well. I follow one of the groups that's going onto the beach, already disgusted. In jeans and flats and polos and sh!t, hair all gelled up, hoop earings, chunky gaudy designer sunglasses. They stop before they've cleared the narrower path and form up to take fckng selfies.
Shitloads of people walking, passing within 6 feet of other groups of people. By the hundreds. Had to wait for a break in foot traffic to not get within 6 feet of multiple groups of people just going from the boardwalk to the water. Nobody fishing was wet-wading. They were all in groups right in the way of everyone walking.
Surfing was dreamy. Rusty, and it was only setting up well right on the top of the tide, but joyous.
Walking back, some drunk trash had hauled a bench out into the sidewalk on 2nd Street, and were sitting there drinking. Multiple other lawn chairs in the sidewalk, drunk owners in or nearby. Impossible to use the sidewalk because people want to drink in it. Other groups of people having impromptu circular chats, generally in sidewalk intersections. For some reason this can't happen in their lawn, or on their porch, or anywhere but the sidewalk anyone jogging or walking belongs on, some of them in groups of more than 10, all within 2-3 feet of multiple people, an hour after the beach is opened again.
There are low-key fishing spots, you can walk or bike anywhere, you can drink anywhere, you can leave your dogshit anywhere, you can take selfies anywhere.
Surfing is the one thing that you can ONLY do at the beach here.