Saturday Morning in Rockaway Beach: The Sixth Annual Rockstock and Barrels Surf Festival

Although Saturday was a busy day for us, we managed to get to Beach 90th Street early today and catch the start of the fabulous Sixth Annual Rockstock and Barrels Surf Festival.
We got to see some of the Third Annual Rockstock and Barrels in 2009, and after a long winter in landlocked Arizona -- we stupidly turned up a chance to go to the beach at Malibu during April, when we were staying for weeks in L.A. -- we were glad to be here, because the last time we saw surfers was last September in Long Beach at the Quiksilver Pro New York. More coming . . . Of course, since we had to get to Brooklyn for work, we missed the best part of Rockstock and Barrels, practically everything that went on for hours afterwards: the surfing competition, the skate contest, the ten live bands. But we're glad we at least got to see the start of what must have been a really terrific day for all the people who showed up.

Friday Morning in Long Beach: World-Class Surfing at the Quiksilver Pro New York

After three gloomy, rainy mornings when we had to get to work on the subway, once we woke up and found out that today's last day of the Quiksilver Pro New York was on,

we hopped out of the apartment and got on the L train to Atlantic Avenue,

running to just make the 8:15 LIRR train at East New York on its way

to Long Beach,

site of the first world-class surfing competition to come to these parts.

It was a great day on the beach,

with a large crowd watching the action

and seeing our fave, 21yo Australian Owen Wright,

win the $300,000 first prize over ten-time world champ Kelly Slater.

Our little dumbphone camera can't really take pics of the surfers where they appear larger than mosquitoes,

but our eyes still work okay,

and we saw some terrific surfing

-- though for the best views,

we relied on the jumbo TV screens.

We spent some time and a little money in the big temporary store on the beach.


The Quiksilver Pro New York was Event No. 6 of 11 on the 2011 World Title season.




Back in the summer of 1969, we were mesmerized by the surfing film Endless Summer.

We still enjoy watching surfers.


We're very grateful to Quiksilver and everyone associated with the Quiksilver Pro New York for extending our summer of 2011 by at least one more memorable day.