It hurts to be a New York surfer!
New York, of course you know, is the world’s most magnificent city. It crackles with energy! With passion! With progressive eateries! With unsurpassed shopping! And sometimes even with waves!
I’ve surfed the bands of a hurricane there once with ex-Surfing editor Taylor Paul and current (?) Surfing web editor Brendan Buckley. It was wildly fun and made me realize why New York surfers live for wild weather.
And, of course you know, there is a hurricane spinning somewhere in the Atlantic right this minute, or tropical storm maybe, sending waves to the eastern seaboard. Glories be! Except do you know what is happening? Bastards in blue are standing on the beach writing tickets for the long-suffering. Fining them for dancing! Let’s read about it in the New York Post:
So much for hanging loose.
NYPD cops hit the Rockaways on Sunday to slap surfers with summonses for riding waves as Tropical Storm Hermine swirled in the distance.
At least four surfers were ticketed for refusing to get out of the ocean amid strong riptides and 5- to 10-foot waves (such as the one above).
“We only get a couple of days a year for all the conditions to come together. It’s really disappointing,” grumbled Jay Harrison, 48, of New Zealand, who was nailed with a summons.
The hang-10 set was hit with the $80 summonses for “failing to comply.’’
“I’m going to fight it. There’s nothing dangerous about these conditions,” said Harrison, who was given a summons by a uniformed cop.
Another surfer, 67, fumed, “It’s just nonsense!”
Meanwhile, on Coney Island, two EMTs used a rope meant to keep swimmers out of the water to rescue a man who had ignored it.
Friends of the scofflaw, realizing he was in peril, flagged down the medics.
One EMT, Monique Wilson, dived in; her colleague, Maxim Furman, tossed her the rope and used it to pull them both back in.
“The riptide felt like I had a 300-pound guy pulling me back out to sea,” Wilson said.
The tropical storm warning was lifted for New York late Sunday, but Mayor Bill de Blasio warned people to stay off beaches, which remain closed to swimmers Monday.
And this would infuriate me beyond any measure. I would explode in a ball of rage. How many good days are there to surf in New York per year. Six? Ten? It can’t be more than fifteen and to have one of those preciouses stolen?
Anger!
Next time the national anthem plays I’m taking a knee and I will continue taking that knee until New York surfers get to enjoy their hurricanes.
I mean, it’s pretty retarded that the NYPD would do that. But at the same time, there was one specific spot that cops were sitting waiting for surfers (there is a precinct there…). As long as you didn’t go there didn’t even see a cop—I avoided that street all together this weekend, and typically do and am happier for it every time.
Chas….you are welcome for the tip on the story (I think).
Anyway…..besides panicking about flooding and flying furniture the waves were pretty amazing,
Gulf Coast of Florida is similar in the double red flag means water closed to swimmers. The law tried one year to keep the surfers out at one of our local piers, it didn’t go so well. Now, they just don’t even bother. If you have a board you’re good to go. God bless the south!
It’s four fucking feet! What is wrong with your country?
Oh my. That lifeguard and the cop are ignorant; the filmer can’t get in trouble for “conspiracy” to surf; he was just filming. Crazy stuff in NY.
I just got back from NYC and fuck, it is certainly magnificent. My West Coast Pastoral immune system can’t handle the subway though and I returned with a wonderful cold.
I didn’t surf while I was there, but I did go for my usual walk-by-and-laugh at the Patagonia Surf shop in the Bowery (right next to the onetime CBGB. HA!).
It only dawned on me a few months ago that the Patagonia surf shop was right next to the old CBGB’s. I hadn’t driven that way in years and it wasn’t until I was driving down Bleeker and got to the intersection with Bowery that it came back to me. God, I’m old…
Trump would never allow this to happen, he would send them to the most glorious bestest goulag ever, the work labor camps are magnificent.
Surf North Korea???