NY locals plagued by “Instagram moments!”

The once inhospitable now friendly!

If you were paying attention to global weather patterns this past winter then you certainly watched with interest as New York City got pounded with “bomb cyclone” after “bomb cyclone.” Weatherpeople are uniquely talented at word play. It feels as if they are able to re-brand phenomena with the greatest names thus breathing life into an otherwise staid field.

“Bomb cyclone.”

I mean, have you read or heard anything quite so… cool sounding this year? I haven’t and not even close. In case you were not paying attention, a bomb cyclone is the rapid deepening of an extratropical cyclonic low-pressure area resulting in cold, snow and waves. New York surfers rejoiced but not all was as perfect as the barreling chill pounding their shore.

Technology, you see, has destroyed their way of life. It used to be too cold to surf and so only the hardened few would have the guts to paddle out. Wetsuit technology has improved to the point of freezing cold comfort though and now the lineups are choked.

The New York Times reports:

Joe Falcone looked past the snow-covered sand to the surf and saw a fleet of humans bobbing up and down on boards. Dozens of them. His blood pumped hot with frustration.

“There were at least 50 guys just in my eyesight,” Mr. Falcone said, describing the scene as “mayhem.” He believes that surfing should be like a meditation. “But it’s hard when you’re sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone you don’t know. Out goes the intimacy between man and Mother Nature.”

Surfing Rockaway Beach in the bitter cold used to be a solitary affair, only for locals and the hard-core. But because of a boom in popularity of the sport, the gentrification of the neighborhood and advancements in wet-suit technology (a $600, five-millimeter- thick suit can keep you warm for two hours), the frigid city surf has gotten crowded, locals say.

“The newcomers are not respecting the natives,” said Mr. Falcone, a sort-of local surf icon who builds surfboards in a garage, blocks from the beach. There’s a lot of posing in Rockaway, he said. “People think of it as an Instagram moment.”

The story goes on to record the injuries sustained by the horde etc. and I very much felt Mr. Falcone and the other locals’ pain. I too grew up surfing freezing cold water. Not only were the crowds non-existent but I felt like an old-fashioned tough guy as I bobbed and froze in my two rotten 3/2s. Like Burt Lancaster. Self-delusion would not have been possible in a crowd and it makes me sad for the New York locals.

Damn Instagram moments.