The one in New Yawk. Heard of it?
Long Beach is a real, actual laid-back surf town, complete with cruiser bikes, flip flops whenever possible, and tousled-haired toddlers wearing mini-rashguards, building sand castles on the beach as their dads check the sets. There's a strong sense of community and pride that you don't usually find in the suburbs. This incorporated city's 35,000-or-so residents are super-friendly and it's a change of pace from the rest of Long Island.
I used to be one of them. I miss calling it home.
Like the West Coast Long Beach you probably think of first, homes here are ridiculously priced; even the once summer-only bungalows start at half a million dollars, with property taxes around $8K a year!
It's a no-brainer locale where suburban-bred beach bums and 20- and 30-year olds who don't want to move too far from their fam flock to stuff a few friends into a rental house and party it up. Many of them take the Long Island Railroad to "The City" for the daily grind (like I once did). They count down the months until spring and summer, then each day 'til the weekend when they can once again traipse up and down the West End's bars and restaurants, after another day of surfing, sunbathing, kiteboarding, skimboarding, or skating one of the town's two skateparks.
[On a complete side note, who the hell is the Hurley rep for the NY Metro area? He/she is making BANK! A huge number of LB residents are shamelessly wearing, like, triple-Hurley this summer. Vans and Volcom, always. And I can't tell you on here the things people offered me for my Vestal Monte Carlo …]
Long Beach has two surf shops and a skate shop whose owners come down to shop Surf Expo. Unsound is pretty bad-ass. They throw their annual Unsound Pro surf contest towards the end of the September show, so we can never travel up to support it, dammit! Long Beach Surf Shop probably boasts the largest square footage and softgoods offering, but my favorite is probably Offbeat, a skate and lifestyle-type spot nestled in the cluttered but quaint West End where I used to live. Two pretty cool chicas own the stylishly laid-out shop, which has been around for years.
For all the teasing we, New Yorkers or East Coasters in general, get from the "West Coast is the Best Coast" bros and bras, there is something to be said for people throwing on a 5 mil wetsuit in February to surf the murky Atlantic during a blizzard or battling the hurricane chop. You don't find tons of great waves every day but you won't find many poseurs there, either.
Next time you're in NYC, take the 50-minute train ride and check out Long Beach. It's worth the haul.
Beautiful coastline, good times, and I'm sure you'll feel right at home in your flat-brim hat with the 59 fifty sticker still on ;)
--VV
