There’s no waves in New York

Plenty of people were electrified when Quiksilver announced a September New York event. Pros were electrified by the idea of winning $300k, the greatest amount of prize money ever offered in a surfing contest. Online forum snivelers were electrified by the prospect of something so easy to tear apart. Commercialism! No waves! Sell-outness! There were also those who saw the event for what it was, and were electrified by the idea of seeing the world’s best scratching over each other and going for broke, desperately over-rotating and planting their fins more critically, the prospect of winning enough money to buy a home too tempting for conservatism.

Quik just released this short clip (above) in response to the ‘no waves in NY’ complaints. It features NY local, Balaram Stack, doing his thang around Long Island. Below are some of the responses B-Stack gave Stab during an interview on the Gold Coast back in February.

Talk about the break. It’s in Long Beach. It’s like a way better version of Newport, I guess. It’s kinda, like, smaller jetties, all lined-up. They help keep the sand together. It’s just beachbreak barrels. There’s a coupla points out east – they have their days, but for the most part they’re pretty mushy. It goes: Point Lookout, Lido, Long Beach, Atlantic. Long Beach is pretty much the centre of it, but it’s not very big. From Long Beach to Atlantic Beach it’s pretty much just all jetties, which hold the sand together. But right before the jetties start, about half a mile before the jetties start until the first jetty, that’s where it holds the biggest swell. Just big A-frames. Kinda Puerto-style. That’s the spot. We call it Lido Escondido (laughs).

There’s a lot of people questioning the place’s consistency. Last year, if they’d had it, it woulda been pumping. Like, as good as it gets. There was a really good swell, then it went flat, then two weeks later there was another really good swell. So, if you had anything over a week and a half waiting period, you woulda got epic waves. Hopefully it happens again. But you never know, it could be like a lake for two weeks straight. But that can happen anywhere. From the sounds of it, it’s gonna be like, the biggest thing ever, whether there’s waves or not. All kinds of shit going on in the beach and in the city.

Considering the world tour is called the ‘Dream Tour’ because it’s theoretically held at the best waves in the world, do you think that, hometown-pride aside, it’s honestly one of the best waves on this Earth? When it’s at it’s top level, I definitely think it’s on-point. You get stand-up beachbreak barrels, as good as anywhere. Way better than like, Southern Cali. When it’s on, I think it’s the shit. Really, it’s gonna be a dream tour just from what the contest is like. All the accommodation is already bought for the competitors, they’re gonna have personal drivers driving them around. I heard they’re getting all kinds of gift cards for all the surfer’s wives to go shopping. It’s gonna be a fucken expensive contest. They’re gonna do things like getting the guy who jumped the furthest jump ever (on a motorbike), and try to have him break the record. Then they’re gonna have this rally car thing, ’cause DC has all their athletes involved. I think they’re gonna have a half-pipe on the beach and stuff like that. I don’t even think that town knows what’s coming for ’em.