{"id":220,"date":"2025-10-14T00:32:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/220\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T00:32:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:32:10","slug":"thrill-seeking-surfers-flock-to-nyc-for-gnarly-10-foot-noreaster-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/220\/","title":{"rendered":"Thrill-seeking surfers flock to NYC for gnarly 10-foot nor’easter waves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thrill-seeking surfers flocked to Rockaway Beach to ride the monster waves churned up by the nor\u2019easter lashing New York City Monday<\/a> \u2014 with several raving they cruised some of the sickest swells they\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as the waves today, I would say this is about an eight out of 10, worldwide,\u201d said 28-year-old Bill McGarry. \u201cI\u2019ve surfed all around the world. I did a lot of contests when I was younger. I won some.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGarry and a buddy came all the way from Virginia Beach to chase the waves Monday, driving through the night in the thick of the storm after tracking it online and determining Rockaway would have the best of the bad conditions.<\/p>\n

Surfers at Rockaway Beach Monday were amazed by the size of the waves, which reached 10 feet and taller. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

\u201cWe left at 2 a.m. We just got here at 10 a.m. and went straight into 10-foot clean waves,\u201d McGarry told The Post. \u201cThis is definitely exceeding our expectations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waves upwards of 15 feet battered the East Coast Sunday into Monday as the nor\u2019easter whipped wind gusts up to 60 mph at times, with the length of the Jersey Shore through Long Island seeing the worst of the lashing.<\/p>\n

The storm is expected to cause coastal flooding, prompting both New Jersey and New York to declare<\/a> states of emergency.<\/p>\n

But the declaration was no deterrent for many surfers, even though a few soon found themselves in over their heads \u2014 sometimes literally.<\/p>\n

McGarry and a friend drove up from Virginia Beach overnight after determining Rockaway would have the best waves. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

Bill McGarry rides a wave at Rockaway Beach Monday morning, where he saw some of the biggest waves of his life. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m hoping to catch the wave of my life. I\u2019ve never gone out in a swell this big!\u201d said 24-year-old Gabe Neves as he waded into the water. \u201cI\u2019m planning on a half-hour to 45 minutes out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within five minutes, however, Neves was staggering back onto the beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure of the undertow! The power is too much!\u201d he said. \u201cThis was ridiculous. Waves eight to 10 feet high? Rockaway never gets this big!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dakin Platt, 29, called the sea \u201ca little scary\u201d but paddled out anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cA thrill for sure, but it\u2019s a little much. I wish I had a slightly bigger board. It\u2019s like floating between mountains today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gabe Neves waded into the water with plans for over an hour of surfing, but swam back to shore within five minutes. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

Neves realized he was in over his head after just five minutes in the water and waded back to safety. James Messerschmidt<\/p>\n

The nor\u2019easter is expected to blow out to sea overnight Monday, but coastal winds could persist around 25 mph into Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Rain has also fallen steadily throughout, but the city was spared the bursts of torrential downpours New Yorkers have come to dread after subway stations were flooded several times in recent years.<\/p>\n

At least one person has been confirmed killed in the metro area \u2014 an elderly woman \u2014 after a solar panel was blown from a rooftop and struck her on the street.<\/p>\n

And the emergency declaration storm prompted the annual Fifth Ave. Columbus Day Parade<\/a> to be cancelled, with no plans currently in place for it to be rescheduled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thrill-seeking surfers flocked to Rockaway Beach to ride the monster waves churned up by the nor\u2019easter lashing New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[57,9,24,55,54,56,294,274,121,58,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-220","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-metro","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","12":"tag-new-york-city-news","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-rockaway-beach","15":"tag-storms","16":"tag-surfing","17":"tag-us-news","18":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}