seafoamandsunshine: New York Surf

We both worked in the New York area last week and met up for the weekend to have another adventure. Having both been to NY several times before we decided that we wanted to have a different New York experience. This would include surfing in NY, going to a Mets game and exploring Long Island. Our inspiration for this adventure:

Ramones - "Rockaway Beach"

On Friday morning, I caught a train to meet Chelsea in Manhattan where we took off for Long Island to get a hotel. We stayed in Jamaica/Queens, which we soon found out was crackhead central, but all that was available last minute.

We started in typical NYC fashion going into Manhattan on Friday night to catch the Broadway Show, Jersey Boys. It was really good!

Saturday brought more rain as we rented a ridcously overpriced F-150 (again all that was available being the last rental left at JFK - don't wait last minute to book anything in NY!) and drove up to Montauk and the Hamptons to check out the surf culture and waves. Montauk was a solid little town with a bunch of surf breaks and a cool light house. We went into a few surf shops and asked about the breaks and then drove around in the pouring rain for a few hours and did not get the chance to break in the Right Coast surfing due to the crazy thunderstorms that were going on. From what we could tell, Montauk had a core group of surfers and a vibrant surfing scene. We really liked it there. The Hamptons as expected were full of a bunch of really wealthy, elitist people who won't let you park on near their beaches, so we couldn't really scope out too much of what was going on there. The beaches were pretty though.

Montauk Lighthouse

The Hamptons

We drove through the ghetto of Flushing to go to CitiField, where the Mets took on the Braves and got smoked. It was a really nice stadium and we ate at Shake Shack, which offered great burgers and shakes.

Sunday morning we took the train to Rockaway Beach and found an old school surf town vibe with a really old skate park and long boardwalk. I couldn't help but sing Ramones songs all day, as we were at their turf. There was a really long boardwalk and there were lots of jetties, most of which were black balled (lame). We rented a board and broke in the East Coast. The waves weren't great and the surfers were even worse, but the water was really warm around 73 degrees and it ended up being really fun!

The Boardwalk

Skatepark right in front of the beach

Mike catching a bunch of closeouts

The Rockaway experience was pretty vintage. The boardwalk provided shade for the surf rats, who tied hammocks and board racks under the boardwalk and listened to music and smoked pot and checked out the beach goers. It was like something you would expect out of the 70s...pretty cool. The beach went from nice and mellow to absolutely packed at about 1:00pm. I am talking about 100,000 people. It was a madhouse. There were also way too many guys in the water. I will never complain about crowds or wave quality ever again. It was a great experience that we both enjoyed thoroughly.