LIers enjoy summer season's last holiday weekend

The sweet, sweaty summer of 2010 was starting to feel like a distant memory at Jones Beach Monday. Under the crisp blue sky, some beachgoers reminisced about the sizzling summerlong heat even as sections of the beach were under water, courtesy of Hurricane Earl.

Newsday asked them what was best about the summer:

As Kevin Straker, 33, of East Elmhurst, Queens, lobbed a football at a friend, he said the best part of his summer was "breaking up with my girlfriend and starting fresh." The breakup left him free to spend the summer going to the beach "where there are a lot of nice ladies." But he made clear that he hadn't left his ex-girlfriend brokenhearted: "It was a pretty mutual breakup." During a series of football passes, he missed a catch to steal a glance at a passing bikini-clad woman.

With house music blaring from a small boombox next to Jason Hernandez, he said the lack of rain was what made his summer memorable because it allowed him to spend a lot of time outdoors. "It was hot," said Hernandez, 33, of West Hempstead. "But I'd rather it be hot than rainy or cold." The best part of his summer, he said, was going to a house music festival at Randalls Island over the weekend. Hernandez, a power tool salesman, said he felt "very depressed" on Labor Day. "Even though I'm not in high school or grade school, I get depressed on Labor Day."

The summer season had come and gone before Himmy Nandlel was able to hit the beach: Monday was his first and only time during the season. But Nandlel, 44, of West Babylon, refused to let Labor Day mean an end to beach days. "I don't think it's over yet," he said. His son, Jason, 5, spent the summer visiting relatives on the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Jason, who starts kindergarten Tuesday at South Bay Elementary, didn't seem to mind summer's end. "Now I'm going to have homework and everything and snacks," he said, as he concentrated on shoveling sand into a plastic shopping bag. "Homework is important."