Thad Ziolkowski: “April Is the Gnarliest Month”

Illustration by Jonathan McNaught

From a very nice piece from the New York Times by Thad Ziolkowski:

When I began surfing in New York in the mid 1990s, it was a seasonal sport, something done from late May until around Thanksgiving. Bowing to the cold each fall was hard, especially since the waves are often best at that time of year, with large, slow-moving storms sending one swell after another and the light taking on a stern, northern beauty. But if you really wanted to surf year-round, you found a way to live in California. This changed about a decade ago, when significantly warmer and more flexible wet suits came on the market. Since then, a growing number of New Yorkers have taken to scampering over snow-encrusted sand in neoprene booties to paddle into an Atlantic Ocean where temperature can dip into the mid-30s. I was skeptical at first, but couldn’t resist buying one of the new and improved wet suits myself. After spending upward of $400, I felt I was ready to join the hard-core year-rounders of New York.

Read on! Thanks to Brian for sending my way.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2012 at 8:00 am. It is filed under New York City, Surfing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.