Zoners and Pros Surfing and Foiling in NYC

[PabstSUP]

Really stoked after a great event over the weekend in the Rockaways in New York where my wife and I enjoyed a full day of SUP surfing and foiling. My wife found out about the clinic at the last minute late last week and signed up for a SUP surfing clinic with James Casey, one of the top pros both in surfing and racing.

The event was sponsored and hosted by A-Team Paddleboards in the Rockaways and Jeff from Premier Paddlesports who we found out was Sunova's new North American distributor.  It also included a free foiling session with Alex Aguera from GoFoil! Found out that Rick (SupTheCreek) was going to be out for the weekend and would be setting up a Sunova Demo. We're both Sunova fans so I was thrilled to come out and try out a few new boards. 

With the Jose swell starting to fill in and favorable winds in the am, we were frothing when we got to 101st and saw the swells lining up on the horizon.  We had passed our home break at Gilgo on the drive earlier in the am and I was happy to see that the waves were a little cleaner closer to the city, even if the water probably wasn't!

We got to the demo tent and though we had brought our own boards I immediately took out an 8'5" Speeed to see how it compared to my 8'10".  I was amazed how stable it was compared to my 8'4" Flow and how it paddled easily into waves (I had always wondered if I had gone too big). Note that I'm 6'3" - 200lbs. The Speeed has always worked great for me in backside lefts so it was fun to be able to throw it around in a smaller size.  My wife paddled out with James for her private clinic and I swapped out the Speed for a 9'1 Acid.  Definitely a little too much board for me but really enjoyed how it surfed frontside - great cutbacks and had a lot of speed though not as nimble as my smaller Flow, though I've only had it out in pumping, clean surf - I doubt I could handle the smaller board with any kind of chop...

James Casey was fantastic - he gave my wife a ton of great tips that manifested themselves during their session. He's a really nice, humble guy who's stoked to travel, surf and meet new people. He was paddling Rick's model, the Creek, during the clinic and gave one of his own, throwing cutbacks and slashes and some amazing skills paddling through whitewater. While waiting for a set I asked him about the Creek compared to his own model (The Flash) which he said was a mix between the Acid and Flow. He said he loved the board and was going to get one more his size (Rick's was a little too much volume for his tastes...). I was hoping to try it out myself but it will have to wait for another time - with that kind of endorsement I'm tempted to pull the trigger on an 8'7" at about 117Lts might be a great board for my wife and I to share...  Though I'll likely need to sell one of our Speed's first.

We wrapped up the SUP Surf clinic and then went to meet Alex Aguera from GoFoil in Maui who took us for a 90min Free! foil session behind a boat.  It's a LOT harder than it looks.  I actually never got fully up and smoothly foiling - I think I was trying to hard to surf vs. pushing down on the board to get the foil balanced.  Every time I lifted out of the water I tended to wipe out though my wife got up after about 10min. She was super stoked - I was a little humbled... 

After the foil clinic we headed back to the beach and hung out with Rick and Kai Bartlett (another Maui waterman who's a champion Outrigger paddler) and got a few more waves before James and the crew packed up to go foil at one of the nearby inlets. We wrapped up the day at Rockaway Surf Club for fish tacos and beers. An amazing day and great event - huge props and thanks to everyone involved! Now we I have to start reading the foil threads...  I've posted a few photos below. I think Rick took some video so I'm stoked to see how they turned out!

[Night Wing]

Nice review of the event. Looks like you and your wife had a great time. Very nice photos too. Thanks for taking the time and effort to post all of your photos to share also.

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

I was there on Saturday. I'm sorry I missed you.

[supthecreek]

What a good time!
Mermaid Parade's, thumping surf and great weather set up an awesome Sunova Demo at Rockaway.

Thanks to all the Zoners, Red Paddle Ladies of NYC and everyone else that came by to visit.... I had a blast!
Thanks for the lunch Icky!
Great to see you again Dale and Gretchen.... see you next weekend

Too much footage.... taking a long time to cull... but I WILL put a video up with lots of great action, in and out of the water!

James Casey is a very special person.... such a humble and gracious guy!
Everyone was very stoked with his clinics, he turned total non-surfers into surfers in one lesson!


Check back tonight for the video (maybe... I'm off on a Hurricane road trip  )
see Ichabod dance, dragons fly, Brazilian cuts, Mermaids, James ripping and SUPsters SUPing!

Here's a teaser shot.
This girl has never surfed anything in her life before:

[Ichabod Spoonbill]

Those are good pics. Too bad you never got the shot when “Icky spooned his bill”! 

[supthecreek]

Icky dance sequence will make up for it!

Thanks to:
Jeff from "Premier Paddle Sports" and his awesome family
Andrew and Amy from "A-team Paddleboarding"
Kai Bartlett: Paddle Master
Alex Aguera from "Go-Foil"
James Casey "Sunova Team Rider" APP #1 last year

Here are some more pics.... then I'm off on a road trip to to chase Jose'

[stoneaxe]

Looks like a great time.

[drfierce]

Sorry I could not make it but looks amazing. Crazy you can get surf like that in NYC

[PabstSUP]

Wanted to add a couple shots of Rick who was out for a whole 20min during Gretchen's clinic and managed to catch a couple bombs. Great to hang out again with the Ambassador of Stoke & Sunova!  Looking forward to spending more time together soon!  Hope you get some from Jose today!

Icky & Eastbound - wish I could have met you on Saturday.  East - we definitely need to figure out how to get a session setup sometime soon. 

Cheers,

Dale 

[WhatsSUP]

WOW!  That looked like a very good time!

Great pics of some serious ripping....

Can't wait for the video!

[eastbound]

before dawn i can get to B101 at the Rock in 28 mins, from my house in bklyn---tho i tend to drive 20 mins further to surf Long Beach---LB seems less closey and the jetties (like 50 of them) are spread much wider than at Rock--makes for a nice peak at the jetty as well as a-frames "in the middle"--and the 50 or more jetties spread out a lot of surfers along a 2 or 3 mile stretch--at rock it's kinda the jetty peak or not at all--B101, given no jetties, is never crowded but more closeout, tho sat/sun this weekend seemed very good---i had great sessions at first light sat and sun at LB--stopped by to see my guru Rick sat en route home--he reinforced my stoke of mind as always, and was clearly making the event work--he 's just creek to us but he has a legit knack with people, and he ran a great demo: attracting beginners, competent sup surfers, proners who'd not yet tried sup, and gutsy women who paddled out in head high beach break

whatever the case nyc has great surfing, esp at this time of year when it seems we have more storms than ever (let's not segway into global warming, pls)--i know lifetime surfers in CA who drive longer than i do for regular sessions---and I am in Brooklyn---go figure

incredibly a stranger took some random video of me sat--ima try to load it

this morning, for example, was epic glass at my LB local--had to watch on cam as my wife had surgery today--check a surfline rewind for this morning at lincoln
jose is close now so it's getting sloppy, but this am looked superb

and it was a pleasure to meet james casey and his girlfriend--hope they are enjoying the rest of their stay--they had spoken of a trip to montauk, and if they went this morning it would have been as good as it gets around here--james' surfing simply is, and he's also a very nice, well-spoken humble guy--cant imagine a better representative for sunova-

btwn james and creek, i'll prolly buy my third sunova soon enough

blame creek! (in my case anyway)

[Fanman]

Dale,
Thanks for sharing you day with us, I wish you would have invited me! Maybe you did? Lol
Get your yourself up for a visit 😊