NYC Urchin surfs Australia!! Photo courtesy of photographer and surfer Warwick. Get your own organic cotton NYC Urchin tee!
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Daily news for all sea creatures in the city
Brooklyn Surf Shorts Strolls into Town
We have a new surf brand coming to town! Brooklyn Surf Shorts, with a sigh of relief, made their Kickstarter goal!! Production is happening now and men’s street-friendly boardshorts, made in NYC, will be available this July for you fine folks…surfers and street strollers alike. ”Goodbye neon booty cutters and oversized floral trunks, and hello Brooklyn Surf Shorts.” NYC Urchin interviews John the founder, NY surfer, owner of DUMBO Startup Labs, and test-wearer of Brooklyn Surf Shorts.
What makes NY surfing special?
New Yorkers in general are a proud group of people. We love our city, even those who live in the ‘burbs. That pride holds true for NY surfers. Our lineups are filled with people that are proud to be surfers and New Yorkers.
What makes these shorts special?
Everything about the shorts makes them special. We paid close attention to get all the details just right. The cut and colors are beautiful and they are comfortable and functional. My favorite thing is that they will be 100% Made in NYC.
How can someone help and what do they get?
We offered a bunch of different rewards for backers. Our favorite is “The Party Animal” which gets a backer a pair of Brooklyn Surf Shorts and an invite to our launch party that will be epic. If you like the idea but you don’t love the shorts you can also pledge anything more than $1 to help us get closer to our goal. Emailing this post to your friends, tweeting, Facebooking and just getting the word out also helps.
(FYI the Kickstarter was a success and you can buy these in July!)
What’s the most exciting part about starting a company in NY?
For an apparel item, the ability to work closely with so many great craftsmen right in your backyard was a really fun and educational process. I feel like I’ve learned so much in the last few months while working on Brooklyn Surf Shorts.
What’s the hardest?
The hardest part about launching a business in New York is that there is so much happening here it’s really hard to get noticed at first. I’ve been lucky to find some great advocates – like NYCUrchin – to help me get my message out. 
Favorite place to surf in NY and why there?
As a grom I grew up surfing Long Beach which was great since I am a goofy and Long Beach has a lot of really fun lefts off their jetties. I think my favorite is Pacific.
What’s on your summer bucket list?
I’m turning 30 in September and I really want to spend my birthday in Montauk and surf Ditch Plains.
Sales Contact: John Coghlan - brooklynsurfshorts@gmail.com
Fish Tales Outeast
If you’re heading out east this weekend, pop by Outeast (64 Tuthill Road, Montauk) to see Scott Szegeski’s Gyotaku art show! I had no idea what Gyotaku was either…
Huh?
Gyotaku is the Japanese process of fish printing. The reason why a swallow tail of a surfboard is called a fish is because someone studied how a fish moves through water and mimicked it in foam and fiberglass. I started printing fish surfboards about 6 years ago. Real fish, although beautiful, don’t really interest me enough to print them. I use the same technique artist have been using for a couple hundred years. Koji paper and sumi ink, although I change mine up a bit. (I use a water base…) the idea for the show came about by those word associations. When the first finmaker made a hatchet fin, he/she was most likely looking at an actual hatchet. But those objects are sometimes so far away from its base that we use the terms hatchet fin and 6’0″ fish without knowing where it came from. That is what I am trying to explore.
What will be in show?
I will be showing Gyotaku prints, mixed media pieces, photography, and sculpture.
I once saw a Lightly Salted sticker in Williamsburg under a light layer of graffiti. It’s yours?
Yes, lightly salted is my shop. Making art is not my full time job although I have been doing it for longer than I have owned the shop. Lightly Salted is an art driven surf shop in Asbury Park, NJ. On the beach, cross the street from the Stone Pony.
Why did you choose Outeast for the exhibit?
I am showing at the Outeast gallery because the owner, Scott Pitches, has a good eye for art and a great place to show it. Oh yeah, I also have bugged him for the last two years now to give me a solo show.
When is the show up til?
All the work is for sale, and it will hang at Outeast until July 2nd.
“Other than all the other shows, tomorrow nights show looks to be the coolest show we’ve ever had. other than the other ones that were the coolest. But tomorrows is really cool.” – Outeast on Scott’s upcoming show.
Surfer’s DNA
The creative direction is a curiously new concept, but the people involved in this project are really a special group that want the same thing…waves and a full recovery from Sandy. You could say it’s in our collective DNA, especially after the storm – photographer Alberto Guglielmi wanted to highlight this similarity, while raising some money for Sandy recovery. Below are some snapshots from the launch event of Surfer’s DNA in NYC…another event is coming up in LA this week and stay tuned for information about the Montauk event in August. You can get your own photo shoot with Alberto, plus some other experiences are up for auction, all benefitting Waves for Water.
Perfect Weekend out East
The weekend is so close you can almost taste it. It’s a little salty I hope and smells like sun balm. Hopefully your summer Fridays have kicked in too…
VOLUNTEER + SURF | Contact Kerry with questions – (603) 498-8520
MIGRATE EAST | bike, train, or paddle…
TOUR BLUEPOINT BREWERY | If you miss the tour, stop by for a fresh brew at their bar.
SHOP | Boho boutique Figue in Southampton, just popped up.
PARTY FOR A CAUSE | tickets
AID HANGOVER | Dry out + polar bear dive
AID HANGOVER PART TWO | Competitive Scrabble and Bloody Woosters (see the NYC Urchin x Crosby Cove recipe)
ENJOY! IT FINALLY FEELS LIKE SUMMER!
A-OK – BACK ON TRACK!
Seven months after Sandy and $650 million later, the A train is back in action! Now you can get back to lugging your board on just two, or one form of transportation if you’re lucky. Later Q53. Watch out Rockaway, here comes the crowd this summer (Rockabus is now running too with adding stops). >> Read full article.
Sundown x Brooklyn Surf Flea
Sundown Surf Shop is hosting their annual Surfboard Swap and they’ve invited Brooklyn Surf Flea to be a part of it on Sunday!! Please come, hang out, offer up your old boards (for store credit) and pick up some new gear from local NY surf vendors, like Brooklyn Beach, Surf Chic Designs, Imaginary Surf, Mer Bags, etc (see past photos). Just like the last flea, each vendor will donate 10% of their sales to Waves for Water!! We hope to see you there.
We have a bunch of dates in the works for Brooklyn Surf Flea. Any new vendors interested in joining in, please send an e-mail to nycurchin@gmail.com. Join Brooklyn Surf Flea on Facebook for the latest.
How Not to be a KOOK
If it’s not instinctual, here’s an instructional video. You will need a surfboard, a lease, and common sense. ha!
When it Rains, it Pours into our Rivers
It’s really pouring in New York today!! After touring the city’s largest wastewater treatment plant at Newtown Creek (you’ve probably noticed the giant metal balls perched on the creek) with the Loomstate office, I’m really glad I missed my 4:30 alarm to head to Rockaway this morning. Did you know after 15 minutes of rain, our sewage treatment plants are at capacity and pour sewage into our waterways?
Yep. For a really good surf, that won’t make you sick, maybe it’s worth checking the surf report and the weather report. Here are some fun and shitty facts I gleaned from the tour…
- The first sewage treatment operations began in 1886. Prior to this the main sewage pipes fed out into the waterway between Rockaway and Coney Island. As the main recreational destination at the time, they had to figure out a way to keep the beaches clean.
- The Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 and set standards for wastewater treatment in all US states. New York plants function above the Clean Water Act regulations, processing 94% of all wastewater.
- The 14 treatment plants in New York process 1.8 billion gallons of wastewater per day that is transported through 7,400 miles of sewer pipes.
- New York has 7,400 miles of sewer pipes and 95 waste pumping stations to move the waste to any of the 14 treatment plants.
- Since New York is set up on a one track system, in which our wastewater and sewage meet and are carried through the same treatment process, up to 15 minutes of rain (1/2 an inch of rain max) can be efficiently processed in New York. Passed that, the excess waste is fed into local waterways! Raw sewage that does enter the river is apparently processed by Mother Nature in 21 days…
- The digester eggs seen in the photos below use bacteria to process waste sludge. The separated liquid is mostly treated and pours into our waterways, while the solid sludge is transported to Ohio, Texas, Florida and Colorado to be used as fertilizer in agriculture. This I thought was VERY cool!! But, apparently our sludge contains really terrible chemicals and would not be considered “organic” or ideal for growing healthy crops. Either way, a neat recycling concept.
- Our per capita water usage in New York is 125 gallons per day!! This is considering the water that is used to make the products we use and consume, in addition to your daily water usage.
- New York drinking water is cleaned using UV light, no longer with chlorine.
- NY’s waterways are the cleanest they’ve been in 100 years…this is a positive, but very unimpressive comment since no one would dare touch the Hudson River.
- The manager also said he doesn’t eat corn and rice because it clearly passes through people’s bodies without providing the body with nutrients.
What does this mean for us?
- We should be more conscious of what we put down the drain and flush. Chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fats, and non biodegradable materials should not be put down the train, as they can end up right back in your waterways. There are ways to dispose of everything properly, but it might take some local research. Medication especially should be disposed of properly – come pharmacies will accept old pills.
- Simply use less water in your daily life.
- If your favorite surfing spot is near a drainage spot, maybe think twice about surfing after it rains!
- We have great tap water so no need to get a throwout plastic bottle. Bendable plastic breaks down really easily in temperate changes, releasing carcinogenic phthalates into your drinking water (more about phthalates and plastic bottles). On that note, stop accepting plastic bags and straws – they end up in the ocean and along the beach in Rockaway for instance.
Further learning:
- Take a tour of the Newtown Creak facility! It’s worth it, and free.
- DEP website
- Male Fish Turning Female Due to Pollution
- A good resource for New York specific water information