Rockaway Surfriders Brave the Waves to Protect the City’s Waters
By Skye McFarlane, as originally published in The Columbia Journalist, December 12, 2005
It is a week before Thanksgiving, and a winter wind is crashing hard onto the shores of Rockaway, Queens, dropping temperatures into the 30s. Yet the water at Rockaway Beach is still alive with surfers.
Clad in head-to-toe black neoprene, five sleek bodies appear like silhouettes, bobbing in the glare of the late-afternoon sun. As the swells roll in, each takes his turn to paddle and stand, perching atop the waves for a few brief, exhilarating seconds before plunging back down into the frothy 50-degree surf.