Post Rockalyptic Landscape

Today Rebecca and I rode our bikes the roughly 15 miles to Rockaway Beach.  I loaded up a UPS/battery backup unit on the back (to help folks charge phone batteries), Rebecca packed some food and off we went.  Once we crossed the Marine Park/Gil Hodges bridge we saw lots of homes pumping water from the basement, and mud everywhere.

As soon as we hit 116 St things began to get weird.

The combination of flood and fire at 114 St has created a post-apocalyptic landscape that looked like a war zone.  Smoking, and in spots still flaming ruins of buildings and muddy sand covered everything.  Fences were twisted, cars were piled up on each other in parking lots.  Search and rescue crews from other states swaggered around, as if trying to project an image of control, but yet seemed conspicuously listless, as if under no command.  And that was just the beginning.

We arrived on 96 St.  The apartment we had been scheduled to move in to last Sunday had mud all over the door and exterior wall, and the high water mark was visible which immediately told us the interior had been flooded.  We opened the door to find muddy carpets and soggy sheet rock, and damage to the doorknob suggested would-be looters had tried to jimmy the lock.  We moved on.

The boardwalk is gone as far as the eye can see.  The only part remaining is the concrete foundations, which lends a surreal Planet of the Apes kind of feeling, especially with waves breaking peacefully in the background.

We arrived to 90 St and Rockaway Beach Blvd to find cars stranded in the middle of the intersection which is now a lake.

On 91 St, a massive section of boardwalk has come to rest atop a mini-Cooper, complete with intact benches and streetlight still erect.  Some local residents stoked a bonfire in the street, adding to the post-civilization feeling.

The bungalow is still standing, despite having taken on 18" of seawater, muddy surfboards were everywhere, having been stirred about by the sloshing, and the entry alley is one long sand dune.  Shaw kept us in a good mood with jokes but summed up what we were all thinking by admitting he didn't know where to start.

The last stop was the Rockaway Beach Surf Club and friends that live next door.  Brandon D'Leo was on site cleaning up, and told the story of watching the ocean send the boardwalk down 91st on Monday night's massive tide surge, to the point where the street light was bumping against his 2nd floor apt.  

The surge in the shaping bay hit nearly 5 feet, sending surfboards, containers and power tools everywhere.  Most of the fiberglass is ruined, probably most of the tools, and the cleanup is going to be major.  At least the blanks, mounted high up on the wall, were spared.

J Scott K told me Monday night was the scariest thing he'd ever lived through.  The neighbors piled into the 2nd floor of his house as water rapidly rose in the space of 15 minutes to become a raging river of seawater, mud, debris and sewage, swamping his truck and causing his first floor to vanish beneath the waves.  How must that have felt for him and Lois, to look down from the 2nd floor loft on rapidly rising water levels inside their home, probably in near darkness, I can scarcely imagine.

I have to admit being really impressed with the humor and strength of character I saw on display.  Hard times and a lot of rebuilding are ahead.  But as we dropped off some food and batteries and prepared for the long ride home, Keone paused from cleaning mud out of his place and stopped me.  "Have you seen the waves out there?  They're not looking too bad!"

And so Rockaway lives.

If you'd like to help, check out TimeOutNY's excellent list of places you can plug in.

All the Fish!

The 2012 Fish Fry(e) was a roaring success with delicious waves, tasty winds, and more Fish than you could shake a spear at.

Kris putting pedal to metal.  You know he's serious when his hand never leaves the yogurt.

Chris Gentile of Pilgrim Surf & Supply, giving the Chicken Petter a shaka hood ornament.

Piles of keel fish, one of the original Mini Simmons, hand planes, even a Lightning Bolt.  Didn't get a picture of it but there was a fiberglass handplane that was one big deep concave and looked sick.

Petro of Faktion Surfboards, petting the Chicken.

 Todd of the Endless Bummer blog.  Love this brother.  He's like a stoke amplifier.

This Sunset stinger single fin ruled.  Gave me one of my favorite rides of the day. 

Enough geekery, time to get the Chicken Petter wet!  It did great in the 4' waves.  I felt like I was riding an antigravity skateboard.  Floaty, caught waves easy, rode loose, and just wanted to dance like James Brown.

Huge thanks to Tyler Breuer, Chris Gentile and SMASH Surf for organizing this event and all the other things they do to make surfing in NY more fun!

Rockaway Gets a Surf Shop

Well, not the first to cater to NYC's home break, but what was formerly a mediocre surf shop, fueled primarily by its cash cow board locker business, has busted down an adjoining wall, doubled its size, and been given a new life.  Have a look at the new Boarders Surf Shop.

More of everything, most notably boards. (Click then drag on panorama below to view 360.  Yes, the boards are actually in one piece...my pano app bugs out sometimes.)

And definitely showing off more interesting shapes.  Justin scopes out a Matador noserider, that resembles something more commonly seen at the end of a spear.

Some classic local pics, including a noseriding soul arch that probably hasn't been seen in these parts in about 40 years.  Finally, for the confused and dangerous (of which there is never a shortage in these waters), someone has finally printed Rules.  And for those with Paipo fever, ladies and gents, start banging your cowbell!

New York's urban aloha in the NYT

Excerpt

"In New York City, slipping off to ride waves virtually within view of granite Gotham provides a unique, slightly illicit, dreamlike pleasure. Surfing shouldn’t be possible here, and yet it is.

Artists, writers and others in trend-conscious fields are plugged in to New York’s surf scene now, but most of the rest of the city is not, and riding the subway with a board clasped to one’s chest like a dance partner still elicits smiles and queries from otherwise game-faced straphangers. There is something disarming about the sight of a surfboard in New York, where it has a nutty, quixotic quality, like a pair of wings.

When New York City surfers cross paths, they greet one another, exchange notes. Because so many of them are new to surfing, having taken it up in adulthood, they are less like seen-it-all New Yorkers than surfers in pre-“Gidget” California, who would pull over when they passed another car of surfers and introduce themselves. Anyone who has surfed in Santa Cruz or Huntington Beach — chilly, xenophobic “surf cities” — knows how exceptional this urban aloha is."

Full article. New York's Urban Aloha by Thad Ziolkowski in the New York Times

One Quad fish delivered!

I've never had anyone make anything to order like this before, so I'm pretty excited as you can imagine. I had trouble making it out to Sayville, so Shawna from Nature's Shapes kindly dropped it off. Thanks Shawna!

Yeah Mike. That's a pretty outline. I was considering some tint but I just couldn't wait to get my hands on it.

Low rocker with a little kick in the nose.

Flat bottom.

Deep swallowtail.

Slight vee in the tail.

Send some waves, please. Soon.