Here are all the important dates, events for summer in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ

On a given day in the summer in Point Pleasant Beach there could be about 50,000 people heading through this 1.5 square mile Ocean County borough to enjoy all kinds of restaurants, shops, events, concerts, the boardwalk and the beach.

It is a summer staple for many who live and work in Ocean County but also many tourists enjoy coming to Point Pleasant Beach for vacation as well for a nice family-friendly atmosphere.

As we head towards the unofficial start to summer this coming weekend, let's take a look at what's going on this summer in Point Pleasant Beach with Mayor Paul Kanitra, who joined myself and Dave Crossan yesterday morning on 'Shore Time with Vin and Dave' which is on every Sunday from 6-8 am on 94.3ThePoint and 105.7TheHawk.

"Everybody knows Point Pleasant Beach for our great beaches, our boardwalk, the ocean -- we don't have any problem attracting people from June, July, and August -- we're packed, we go from an annual year round population of 4,500 people to on any given day in the summer, we could have 50,000 people, in town," Mayor Kanitra said. "When our administration came in, we really wanted to focus on how do we make Point Pleasant Beach a more year round viable town for our businesses and how do we attract families to come and locate and live, work, and play in Point Pleasant Beach all year round."

In the digital age now where more and more people are working remotely, there's a trend of people moving to the Jersey Shore and Mayor Kanitra and his administration want to help make this borough a great year round destination for people to live and work and raise families.

Easier commuting to, from, and around Point Pleasant Beach is on the way as well.

"I'm always thinking of how can we get commuters more easily back and forth. I reached out to a C-Plane service the other day and the CEO and I have been trading some emails because obviously, half of New York goes out to the Hamptons, but the other half comes down to the Jersey Shore in the summertime. So, we've been trying to talk and see if we can figure out some of these laws and see if there's a possible landing site," Kanitra said. "It's very, very early state but we leave no stone unturned in Point Pleasant Beach."

There are stones being overturned to alleviate any concerns with parking and commuting around Point Pleasant Beach as well.

"We are constantly trying to find new solutions for more parking, but we just had a new business, local guy launched a business this year called Point2Point Shuttle, and it is an electric golf cart on-demand via app, totally free -- obviously they want you to tip the drivers -- but it will take you anywhere east of the canal in Point Pleasant Borough to anywhere in Point Pleasant Beach," Kanitra said. "Hopefully it will help that cross pollination of people that come to the beach and boardwalk in the summertime. It can take you to dinner at a rental home, whatever it may be, and it's going to be super, super cool."

New businesses and restaurants opening in Point Pleasant Beach.

There are a lot of great restaurants, shops, businesses and venues in Point Pleasant Beach to spend a day, week, month, etc. and more are being added to the fold with some recent projects getting underway or completed adding to the borough's already stellar scene.

"On New Jersey Monthly's list of top-restaurants -- we had 7 of them, so we really outkick our coverage in Point Pleasant Beach," Kanitra said. "We have a ton of cool stuff happening:

3G Golf opened up last year -- it is a virtual golf simulator located right in downtown, it is packed every single night even in the offseason and during the summer. You can have parties there, they do kids games on the screen, it has all these exhilarators, everything like that to gauge your swing and the ball goes just like you're playing real golf.

We have a Salt Water Culture is opening in a week or two. Two girls from Brick that are starting it, it's like a super cool, fun, modern, like women's clothing store kind of with that beachy surf vibe to it.

The guys who did Reef and Barrel in Manasquan, and some other properties -- they're opening Boat Yard 401 at the Old Dukes and Farrell's location at the point where Broadway kind of meets Channel Drive by Spikes, they have put a ton of money into this space, they've removed the drop ceilings and kind of opened it up and exposed some of the old beams of the old building. They're currently working on getting an outdoor deck for the back side facing Channel Drive and they've got a lot of fun ideas for music on a lot of different nights and it's just going to be a super cool vibe.

I can't say who or what but everybody knows the spot, you drive by it on (Route) 35 going northbound near Wendy's in Point Pleasant Beach behind the liquor store that sat vacant for a bunch of years -- there's a very cool business that is going to be fun for everybody, good family type restaurant situation that is relocating there. Hopefully, the owners will be willing to announce that in the next week or so.

We have a new sweet shop, candy shop with homemade candy and ice cream and stuff along those lines on Bay Avenue in Point Pleasant Beach.

The old Beach Diner spot at the corner of Arnold and 35 -- that's getting turned over, that's going to be a beach, kind of lunch and breakfast spot, that's a couple months away from getting opened.

Center Steakhouse opened on the inlet on Inlet Drive, it's the former Shipwreck Point -- the guys are really cool guys, they owned a NASCAR team -- they're a cool group.

We just approved a second brewery along the train tracks in an old oil property. The guys came in -- and you look at this property -- it's just a dumpy, dilapidated property that needed to be remediated -- and they came in and they go 'ya know, one of these buildings here has the last remaining horse barn from 1870 something in Point Pleasant Beach. We're going to chop the building open, we're going to revive the horse barn, we're going to expose all the beams, we're going to make it the showpiece of the brewery, we're going to put the old clocktower on top of it, and we're going to open up'. It passed the planning board unanimously. It's going to be a homerun when it opens."

As for shops and souvenirs, there's plenty to visit in Point Pleasant Beach and some new ones being added to the mix as well.

"As for what you can buy, when you come to Point Pleasant Beach, obviously there's a lot of great stuff up on the boardwalk but we have some really unique shops that are opening downtown or are already doing great stuff," Kanitra said. "If you want to spend a good penny, and you want a really nice souvenir, a guy on our Arts Committee Jim Manzero, does these crazy, encaustic -- I guess you would call them paintings -- but basically he takes old nautical charts and he drips wax on them in an artistic way that kind of creates waves over the surface of the maps and all kinds of beachy stuff. He does a really good thing.

The 3G Gold guys I talked about, they do a lot of logo merchandise that's kind of unique to Point Pleasant Beach.

And, you need your beach gear and clothing, you go to an old school place like Gordon's Surf Shop, it's like the quintessential beach location."

There are other types of fun through different events happening this summer as well in Point Pleasant Beach.

The Offshore Grand Prix made its return in 2021 following a postponement in 2020 due to the pandemic and it's coming back again here in 2022 towards the middle of June -- on the 10th, 11th, and 12th.

On June 11 as well, Mayor Kanitra said that the Point Pleasant Beach Recreation Department will be holding a 'Battle of the Bands' that will feature bands from across the Jersey Shore competing for a Grand Prize.

The Seafood Festival/Festival of the Seas is also coming back to Point Pleasant Beach this year as well on September 17 with vendors from across New Jersey and the U.S.

"Seafood Festival is coming back again, that's usually about 30,000 people in the downtown area," Kanitra said. "I'm going to make this claim here -- I'm calling Point Pleasant Beach the Seafood Capital of New Jersey and here's why, I have the facts -- tell me another town that has the commercial fishing operations that we do -- our clamming operations, I think, are the 3rd largest on the East Coast of the U.S., we obviously have all the head boats and all the charter boats that you can go out and do that, we have a ton of marinas, and we have the recreational boats that go out, and then start reeling off the seafood restaurants -- you've got Spikes, you've got Point Lobster on Channel Drive, you've got Point Lobster Bar and Grille downtown, you've got the new Lobster Roll place that came onto Arnold Avenue that just specializes in lobster rolls, you've got Shore Fresh Seafood, you have the Shrimp Box, you have Offshore Seafood and Restaurant, you have Red's Lobster Pot at the inlet -- so tell me how Point Pleasant Beach is not the Seafood Capital of New Jersey."