Not on my watch, buddy. Photo by Alex Karinsky.

As reported by the Rockaway Times last week, the NYC Parks Department has banned the use of bodyboards across all of NYC’s beaches.

The new measure is thought to have been put in place after a couple of kids were swept out to sea during the recent run of swell Hurricane Bertha delivered to the east coast, with Parks Department Rockaways Administrator Jill Weber commenting, “There has been an increased use of them and we have to ban them for people’s safety.”

Fortunately, surfboards haven’t as yet been called into question but seeing as their use was only actually legalized in 2007, who knows what’s possible in the land of the free home of the brave.