Candice Papierowicz of Pine Bush, New York says, "It's extraordinarily hard to keep standing. The waves come and they just pummel you down."
That is unless you're on a boogie board riding them in like 12-year-old Tyler Suveges. "It's just big waves coming at you, you cut in. it's just really fun," says Suveges.
Rough surf and rip tides have been keeping lifeguards busy over the last couple weeks. Yesterday in Cape May guards decided to close the beaches for a couple hours after 7 people were injured in the pounding surf in a span of just 40 minutes.
The heat wave, which thankfully is on its way out, has brought thousands to the shore for relief but on days like this the water's almost too cold to go in. Today's ocean temps were reported as low as 53 to 55 degrees at some beaches.
In fact, people in Ocean Beach are having a hard time believing there's been a heat wave going on the last week.
Jim Wills of Springfield, New Jersey tells us, "I see that it's almost a hundred degrees and here actually on Sunday we were cold. We had to go home."
Regardless of whether it's fog, riptides or rough waves beachgoers look at it the way Teddy Wahler does: "Bad day of vacation's better than a good day at work. You'll take whatever's coming? I'll take whatever's coming my way."