Tobay Beach Cam, Long Island, New York

Before packing the car for the drive out Ocean Parkway, plenty of Long Islanders open the Tobay Beach cam to see how much of the sand is already taken. The camera streams live from Tobay Beach, the Town of Oyster Bay’s beach in the middle of Jones Beach Island, off the South Shore of Long Island in Nassau County, New York, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and South Oyster Bay on the other. It is one of the New York webcams on the site.

The name gives away the owner: TOBAY is short for Town of Oyster Bay, which has run the beach since it opened. Town residents get in with a beach sticker, while non-residents may visit on weekdays only, for a $30 fee. The Town of Oyster Bay sets the season, and in 2026 it kept lifeguards on duty on weekends through September 27, well past the usual Labor Day close.

Why the Tobay Beach live cam exists

Checking the crowd is exactly what the live camera was put up for. During the COVID-19 pandemic the beach ran at 50% capacity, and in late May 2020 the Town posted a live feed so people could see the crowd levels before leaving home. Today the same stream works as a beach cam for wave height, wind on the water and the size of the parking lot.

Surfing, fishing and the bay side of Tobay

Three tunnels lead from the parking area under the dunes to the ocean, and the eastern one goes to the surfing area. Body boarding is allowed along the whole beach, and fishing is allowed outside the restricted hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. On the bay side, a 150-slip marina sits on South Oyster Bay, where the Town also holds its free Waterfront Festival each September.

The Town streams a second, very different view too: the Oyster Bay osprey cam, which follows a nest on the North Shore of Long Island.

Both are free to open, like all the live streaming webcams on the site, and the Tobay Beach live cam is worth a look outside summer too, when the off-season sand along Jones Beach Island is often close to empty and the surf is easier to read.

Long before the camera, this beach already had a famous visitor. In June 1949, when Tobay was mostly known for its marina, photographer Andre de Dienes shot a young Marilyn Monroe here.