The "Surfing Sisters" Story

Nun's Beach, Stone Harbor, New Jersey

It was an ordinary day.  Standing on Nun's Beach taking a few photos of the beach and the nearby Villa Maria by the Sea which is a retreat for the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. For many years I have often wondered what went on inside the beautiful building located on the 111th Street plot in Stone Harbor.  

The Villa Maria by the Sea retreat for the Sisters of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

I had heard that the place was used for retreats, but never knew exactly what type of retreats.  My photo shoot today gave me a closer look of the neat white building at the south end of Stone Harbor.  There was absolutely no one around when Carol and I arrived about 9:00 AM one Monday morning a few weeks ago.  Place looked deserted.  

The Garden behind the convent which features
the Stations of the Cross.

We first walked toward the beach, stood and watched the tide lap at the shore, then turned to admire the 250 room building that shone brightly in the early morning sun.  I pulled the car closer to the building and told Carol I would be right back after I grabbed a few photos.  She pointed to the sign that said about trespassing, but I told her I was on an assignment so that was different.  

Photo showing the convent from the late 1930s from "Stone
Harbor - One Hundred Years Of The Seashore At Its Best."

Well, after loading my photos onto my laptop I did some research on the building to see exactly what I had just taken photographs of an hour before.  The Immaculata, Pennsylvania-based Sisters had just lost their Cape May retreat to a terrible storm and decided they wanted to rebuild.  They bought the 6 1/2 acre beachfront property in nearby Stone Harbor for $2,000.  

Aerial shot of Villa Maria by the Sea from
the same publication as above photo.

They got permission to build in 1937 and hired architect Peter Getz to design the building that was built on 600 pilings, required 19 car loads of lumber from the nearby Stone Harbor Lumber Company and 13,000 feet of water and drainage pipes. Amazingly, the construction of the building took only 118 days to complete.  For years the building was used for summer retreats for teaching nuns,  In the mid-1990s Sister James Dolores took over management of the building which had deteriorated due to the salt-water atmosphere.  New windows were installed and vinyl siding was placed on the exterior walls.  

Lancaster, Pennsylvania artist and high school teacher at
Lancaster Catholic HS designed the Nun's Beach t-shirt logo.

Donations from friends, neighbors and benefactors helped pay for much of the renovation, but a new venture was started in 1996 to help raise money for the retreat.  The beach in front of the convent, which is one of the few private beaches in New Jersey, became the home of the Nun's Beach Surfing Contest.  

Street sign advertising this year's contest.

As a money-making endeavor, the competition wasn't a big success at first, but then the convent took over ownership of the Nun's Beach brand and began capitalizing on their status as a righteous oddity on the Jersey Shore.  The annual contest draws surfers from all over the world to tiny Stone Harbor and the nuns sell Nun's Beach visors, towels, magnets, hats, shirts and barbecue aprons.  The logo used features a drawing of nuns carrying a surfboard with the slogan "Pray for Surf: Nun's Beach.  Sister Dolores said she got on a wave runner in her habit to pose for a publicity photo.  

Closer view of the front of Villa Maria by the Sea.

The Vatican tends to frown on the selling of indulgences, but the Pope never said anything about selling of souvenirs Sister Dolores said.  A few years ago the event became so large they had to change the contest to an invitational to control the amount of contestants involved.  It has been reported that none of the sisters surf in the contest, but that may be due to the fact that the average age of those who come to the summer retreats is 65.  They do don one-piece bathing suits to enjoy the ocean currents.  My photo session led to more than I had expected with learning of the history of the beautiful building as well as getting a few interesting photographs.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an oridnary guy.