By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff
OCEAN CITY — There’s nothing like a reminder of summer amid the cold, dark winter, and a beach tag seems like the perfect choice.
For years the city has been starting sales of its tags on Black Friday, just in time for stocking stuffers.
“It’s a great Christmas holiday gift. The city is selling these tags right now and there’s no better place to start your shopping than getting your beach tag so you will have a hundred days of beautiful summer in Ocean City,” said Michele Gillian, executive director of the Greater Ocean City Chamber of Commerce.
“We always launch the sale the Saturday before Thanksgiving, it kind of coincides with the Early than the Bird (Downtown Shopping Extravaganza, in which many enjoy giveaways and discounts while dressed in pajamas).
“We sell them online, we sell then in person around town. We have a good five, six weeks of sales for Christmas presents,” mayoral aide Mike Allegretto said.
This year the tag features the work of newly local drone photographer Brian Kerchner.
“When we were talking about what type of beach tag, the mayor wanted something nice and relaxing, a nice relaxing scene,” Allegretto said.
Allegretto said someone found a photo that fit the bill on Kerchner’s website, ocnjdrone.com.
“I reached out to the gentleman who ran the site and I asked him if we could use one of his pictures for the beach tag this year and he agreed,” Allegretto said, adding that it’s a photo of 18th Street beach.
“You can see it on the lifeguard stand and the lifeguard boat is there as well. We just thought it was a cool sky that’s tough to take a picture of. We knew we couldn’t duplicate it, so we got permission to use that picture,” he said.
Kerchner, a licensed drone pilot who specializes in capturing moments from the sky, operates OCNJ Drone.
He grew up vacationing in Ocean City with his family. Originally from West Chester, Pa., he spent eight summers working at Chickie’s and Pete’s on the boardwalk, where he met his future wife. After their marriage, they decided to pursue their dream of living on the island full time and moved to Fourth Street a couple of years ago.
He said he started the website as a hobby during the coronavirus pandemic to share pictures with those who could not experience the city in person. Since then, his work has been featured on numerous news outlets and he even partnered with Bruce Springsteen and his team for his JerseyForJersey Pandemic Relief Concert.
OCNJ Drone’s slogan is “Creating memories from above,” and the company sells custom home photos shot from the sky, wall calendars, phone wallpapers and other items featuring scenes of the city.
“I started this social media page posting aerial photos of Ocean City and over the pandemic things kind of just blew up. People just enjoyed them and thought it was a neat perspective,” Kerchner said. “One day I’m sitting there and I get a call from the city. They said they saw my website, saw a lot of people talking about it and wanted to know if I would be interested, and I was like, ‘Heck, yeah, are you kidding me?’”
He said he grew up “going to Ocean City my whole life as a shoobie and a vacationer and to have a photo on the beach tags is so cool.”
“This is a tough time right now with the pandemic and this has been such a bright spot for me,” Kerchner said. “It’s something that I never thought would be possible with this little hobby. It really has been fun.”
He said he was compensated for the photo but was “honored to do it and a little bit of income helps with my expensive hobby and some schooling.”
Kerchner described the photo as being in the right place at the right time.
“That day I was out there with a beautiful sunset out over the ocean and just right place, right time. It helps with a drone that I am able to put that drone wherever I want. I can put that thing 300 feet up in the air, I can keep it low,” Kerchner said. “It was one of those perfect Ocean City evenings.”
City resident Kelli Jones, 43, showed off the tags from her desk at City Hall last week. She recently had her nails done, which worked out well for some photos.
Williamstown resident Scott DaGrosa, 56, who owns a vacation home on Haven Avenue, was buying eight tags to put in his wife’s stocking.
“I came down to check on my shore house and get some work done and figured while I’m here let me grab my tags,” DaGrosa said, adding that 2021 will be their second summer in the resort. “I’m getting ahead of this, I’m going to put them in my wife’s stocking this year so she knows it got done. She’s going to get a kick out of it.”
DaGrosa was buying eight tags and saved $40 by purchasing them before May 31, after which the cost of a weekly tag rises from $20 to $25.
Beach tags are required for children age 12 and older. Weekly tags cost $10 and daily tags are $5 and may be purchased during the season. The tags will be required from June 5 to Sept. 6.
“It’s just relaxing,” DaGrosa said about visiting the city. “We’ve been coming here since I was a kid and when the opportunity came to buy something I jumped on it and I’m enjoying life now.”
The 2021 beach tags are available at the Welcome Center on the Route 52 causeway (Ninth Street bridge), at City Hall on Ninth Street and Asbury Avenue and at the information center at 46th Street and West Avenue, as well as at the Ocean City Aquatic and Fitness Center at 17th Street and Simpson Avenue.
Allegretto said 2020 tag sales “were down but with everything going on we thought we did pretty well.”
The city extended the discounted price through June this year because the COVID-19 pandemic kept tourists away for many weeks through spring and early summer.
“As the season went on the weekly tags were good, the daily tags picked up and overall we were happy, with the circumstances, with the sales,” Allegretto said.
He said the city is looking forward to a brighter future.
“With the vaccines coming, we start getting the positive news and the governor can start opening us back up and we can get back to business as usual,” Allegretto said. “That’s our optimistic goal this year is to have everything as close to normal as you can get for a great summer.”