Thursday morning on the Long Island coast sure didn’t look like a surfer’s paradise. It was chilly, misty and gray, and the sea looked fussy. Pedestrians along the boardwalk huddled in windbreakers and sweatshirts.
Then, a sudden movement on the ocean: Among the dozens of figures in neoprene suits in the choppy water, bobbing up and down, a lone surfer erupted in a fierce paddle. He popped up to his feet, dropped down the face of what looked to be an eight-foot wave — huge for an August day on Long Island — slid into the barrel and was spit out triumphantly.
This is the kind of wave that New York surfers dream of catching all year long.
As Hurricane Erin moved up the East Coast, surfers in and around New York City, who are known to put on hooded wet suits in February to chase decent waves, are enjoying the rarity of the best waves of the season on a summer day.
Before most Long Islanders had even had their coffee, there were more than 50 surfers in the water off Long Beach.
“This is what they get excited for; this is what amps them up,” said Adrien Gallo, a surfer dad armed with camera gear. He was there with his wife, Kyle Ferrara, watching their three children, Charlie, 14, Palmer, 13, and Wilds, 11, deftly surf waves most adults shouldn’t attempt.
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The post For Two or Three Days, a Surfer’s Paradise in and Around New York City appeared first on New York Times.
