New York City prime location for major Pro Surf event ?

New York surf spots courtesy www.wannasurf.com Why no pro-events in NYC? By: Sean O. Flynn A little history: Picture the sun coming up as a haze lifts off the city. The car horns have been going all night. Every single person you see on the street is in a rush. There is no stopping, no letting up, and no slowing down….ever. Steam rises off the ground. The city gets hotter than you could ever imagine. I swear to God I saw the buildings sweating once. People get angrier the hotter it becomes. The concrete bubbles, begging for the sun to let up. At 7 am it is already in the 90’s, now that’s hot. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to New York City in August. More dreamers come to this city than Milan, Los Angeles and Paris combined. This is it folks; this is the center of the world. So hold on because New York doesn’t slow down for anyone. It is a tough city with tough people during tough times. This city has seen it all and keeps on trekking without ever looking back. So what do you think when someone mentions New York City? Broadway, the Yankees, Time Square, Wall St., surfing? That’s right, I said surfing! Believe it or not, NYC is only 20 minutes from some of the best East Coast waves. Long Beach, The Rockaways, and Gilgo, LI to name a few. Die hard people surf year round in freezing temperatures and blazing heat. Just like the City itself, the surfers here don’t let up either. Surfing has been part of this great city for over fifty years. Black and white photos that hang on the wall at The Gilgo Inn show an era that most have only seen on TV: duck-ass haircuts, splendid long boards, and of course perfect style. It’s a look thought only to belong to the West Coast. Not the case. Life seemed easy during the late 1950’s in New York City. Mo-town and Mickey Mantle were the talk of the City. Out West in California surfing was exploding all over the place. Newport Beach and Malibu became a Mecca for surfers. Most people in New York City felt this West Coast craze was nothing more than a passing phase, like the hula-hoop. But not everyone felt that way. More and more surfers were being seen at New York beaches. Many people would gather and watch from the shore as surfers would cut and pull back on the waves. It was simple stuff, but at the time mind-blowing to spectators on shore. It was a scene most had not witnessed before; a style that was being born right on the coast of planet Earth’s greatest metropolis. In 1960’s Gilgo Beach was the most notable surf spot. In fact, it was the location of the first ever East Coast Surfing Championship in ‘61. What started as a little contest between local surfers has now spun into a Pro Tour event. Gilgo Beach had turned from a barren strip of beach along Ocean Highway to the main attraction for surfers on Long Island. Even today, surfers travel from many miles to test the waves at Gilgo. Some days may be slow with a few too many surfers fighting for the limited wave. But let me tell you, when Gilgo goes off, there isn’t a better place along the entire East Coast. Just down the coast to the west you will find Long Beach Island. Long Beach has been a beachfront community dating back to the 1880’s, when the Long Beach Hotel was built. As time went on this summertime haven developed into a getaway for New York City residents. By the turn of the century Long Beach had evolved into a year-round residence for many. In fact, it became the Second City on Long Island, the first being Glen Cove. In 1914 a 2 ¼ mile long boardwalk was built which would become the City’s landmark. Being a great location for such summer activities as fishing (the bay is on one side and the Atlantic on the other), swimming and sunning, it was just a matter of time before surfing would impact this humble community. “Surfers are territorial.” This saying is very true, but nowhere more in NY than Long Beach. Its not uncommon to see many of the same surfers out on the water these days that were there over 30 years ago. With arguably the best consistent surf NY has to offer, there is no real reason for these surfers to go anywhere else. With the beach open year round, this tight knit community can rip anytime, even when mother nature decides to set it off in February. One very noticeable aspect of Long Beach is the family- like bond among the die-hard surfers. You are sure to stick out the first time you surf there. If Gilgo can be considered a melting pot, filled with surfers from NYC to Montauck, then Long Beach has the “locals only” feel to it, seeing that the majority of the surfers live within walking distance to the beach. Photos above courtesy www.bungersurf.com Danny Margagliano : Photo © Red Bull / Justin Lamkin Now the Question - Why not NYC? With this much history and this much surf in and around NYC, one must ask the question, “Why no pro-events in NYC?” There are pro-events every year in New Jersey, Maryland, North Carolina, and Florida. The events in these states have a tremendous fan turn out, hefty sponsor participation, and notable surfers. If you open up any surf magazine in October, you are sure to see pictures of an East Coast event. Great waves left over from Hurricanes and Nor’easters make the East very appealing for events in late August thtough early October. But for some reason NYC does not draw any major events to its beaches. Is it because sponsors don’t see NYC as a great marketing location in the surfing world, (admittedly it’s no “Off the Wall”.) In my eyes, if the Jersey Shore can pull sponsors and talent to local events, than there is no reason New York City can’t do it; and do it better. As mentioned there were pro-surfing events in New York in the 1960’s. At a time when surfing was still trying to “break into” the spotlight, events were held all over the country. Money and exposure for the event were not of concern because the whole concept of surfing was still foreign to most of the world. If you had ten surfers, two judges, and thirty on lookers, then you had a major event. With out question this was being done on a much larger scale out West Coast, but that’s because the popularity of surfing grew at a much more rapid pace there. The Northeast, a place known for cold, big-winter breaks. It almost seems as though the growth of surfing out West took away much of the interest of surfing in the East. This is to be expected of seasonal sports. Surfing in San Diego and Maui is a year round event. Granted surfing is done year round in New York, but it takes a certain mindset to charge the waves in 30 degree water. So as the popularity of surfing grew in the West, so did the number of surf companies and surfers. By the mid to late 1970’s surfing in New York seemed to be nothing more than a hobby. With events like the X-Box Pipe Masters (a Van’s Triple Crown Event) in Hawaii, it was hard to believe an event would ever return to New York. But in typical New York fashion, surfers here never missed a beat or even were bothered by the popularity of surfing elsewhere. What would you expect? If it were 70 degrees year round in New York, surfing would have the same popularity here. Now this is where things begin to get mixed up. By the early 1980’s surf events had proven successful back on the East Coast. Sponsors were taking notice to surfers in Florida and North Carolina and continued to move north. Now Maryland and New Jersey were producing pro-level surfers. But not NY. There are plenty of locally sponsored events in NY such as the event sponsored by The Bunger Surf Shop held at Gilgo Beach each summer. But major sponsors seemed to draw a line at the mouth of the Hudson River. I find it strange that a city as powerful and lucrative as New York would have trouble pulling in sponsors for anything, including surfing. Let’s not forget, New York is a finalist as the United States choice to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. I guess it will take more than the Olympics for corporate sponsors to invest in a New York Surf event. Surf Shop & Woddies : photo www.bungersurf.com I see no reason why the New York City is not considered a prime location for a major surf event. The state of Florida has two very successful professional hockey teams and Canada plays host to two professional baseball teams. Both seem crazier to me than if an event in New York had Shane Dorian paired against Luke Egan or Rochelle Ballard paired against Holly Beck. All New York needs is a chance from the big sponsors. A major event in the NYC area would only help the local surf community in a handful of ways: it would flood local surf shops, give New York amateurs a wild card bid to an event to compete and most of all it would put New York back on the map of great surf locations, where it should be.