Riding the subway to the beach is all too common in
NYC.New York City has been growing as a place associated with surfing for years. While surfers have existed on New York's Long Island and the nearby Jersey Shore since the 50s, the growth of the sport in the region was slow to develop. Inconsistent swell, cold water, and a disparate culture proved to be barriers well into the late 1990s. This reality was welcomed by those few who actually discovered the potential of the place and were all too willing to keep it a secret.

Enter the age of the internet.... by the year 2000 with the establishment of forecasting services like Surfline, the prevalence of digital photography, predicting swells and their ensuing documentation and dissemination truly showed the world that being a surfer in places like New York was quite feasible.

This reality was most recently vindicated when the ASP announced that in September 2011 it will host the first WCT competition on the East Coast at New York's Long Beach via the Quiksilver Pro New York. Chosen as an optimal time to take advantage of hurricane swells and warm water, the Quik Pro New York will no doubt push awareness of surfing in the Big Apple into the stratosphere.

Despite this, it's unlikely that the sport will ever reach the saturation of locales like California and Florida, as Mother Nature has a way of culling the weak, by relying on her longtime friend and lover - Old Man Winter.

That said, here's a great little edit on life of waveriders in the city that never sleeps.