Long Beach surfing: past, present and future

It was a cold stormy day in the late Autumn of 1969, small groups of Long Beach and Far Rockaway youths dedicated to the pursuit of riding waves are in the parking lot changing into their stiff and waterlogged rubber suits while motoring passerby’s flash looks of both disgust and wonder. It is this very illustration that captures the essence of the obscure hardcore local surfers, whose lives revolved around this moment, while working for just enough money to put towards trips to far off surfing destinations dreamed about while flipping through Surfer Magazine.

Looking back now, it’s crazy to think that during the Summer’s of those early years of New York surfing, that these ‘rebels, outcasts, burnouts or beach-bums’, as they were commonly referred to, were often treated as criminals. Some life long resident surfers such as Jeff Kupferman have experienced the great transformation of NY surfing first hand.

“To witness the evolution in the acceptance of surfing in Long Beach over the course of the last 40 years has been incredible, it seems like yesterday people were getting in their boards impounded for surfing during the Summer season,” recounted Kupferman.

Unless you have been living under a rock, you may have noticed that the sport of surfing and the surfing lifestyle is now a part of mainstream pop-culture consciousness, as evidenced by it’s frequent use to market everything from automobiles and electronics to drinks and toiletries. But as with any counter culture that goes mainstream, there will always be a core underground legion of enthusiasts looking to separate themselves from the masses.

Members of this hardcore surfing subgroup are not easily detected by an image, but by their lifestyle driven by the ocean, dictating the majority of one’s daily or life decision-making. The multi-billion dollar surfing industry is built on the backs of these lifestyle-defining groups that exist in every country with a coastline the world over.