Hamptons Surf Safari

Sean Attebury

When does a tradition become a tradition?  Mark Twain stated “The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it”.  Thus, my good friends that I met in Alaska 20 years ago celebrate their wedding anniversary in mid-September.   In 2016 they acquired a beach house in the Hamptons and I invited myself out for a weekend trip surf safari.  OMG – Growing up in California and living in the Newport Beach area for many years, and, being stationed on Oahu, I thought I was a qualified judge of top-notch beach experiences.  NOT SO JOE!

I have fallen madly in love with the beaches on Long Island and thanks to my bro’s reconnaissance surfing appetite, each trip I get to experience new beach locations but I always enjoy the quality time spent at Cupsogue which is a part of Westhampton Beach. So, this was my 2nd annual trip during my friend’s anniversary and we had discussions to that end that it is now a “tradition”.  My kind of tradition.

So, what is so great about the beaches in Long Island and the Hamptons? The disclaimer is that my visits coincide on the weekend after the official end of summer and the majority of the summer crowds head back to the city for the winter.   I guess crowds gets be pretty intense during the summer, but, mid-September the water is still warm and the beaches offer plenty of solitude and your own space.

Max Scainetti, a lifelong East Hampton resident, said the tiny grains of tan sand and the cleanliness of the beach are two of the things that make Main Beach special. “This is one of the best beaches in the country and I’ve been to a lot of beaches,” Scainetti said. “I think basically it’s a lot to do with the sand. A lot of Long Island beaches tend to be rocky where these are more sandy beaches.”

Cupsogue Beach

Javier Baldo, an East Hampton cook, said he has visited Main Beach regularly for about eight years. “It’s fairly civilized. It doesn’t get too crowded. The water is delicious,” he said. Delicious? “It’s really great water, it’s really clean. You just have a lot of space.” Baldo said celebrities are sometimes seen at the beach, but people generally keep to themselves. “It’s quiet, there’s no loud music playing. It’s obviously very safe; great lifeguards. There are really great lifeguards. They’re actually fit and very well experienced. That’s a big thing, just the safety,” he said.

My observation is that whomever you see out at the beach, no one gets there by mistake.  You might have a 6-figure income or an 8-figure income, but, once you don your beach shorts and sunblock, you belong to this oasis of serenity, sunsets and the great migratory channel for birds heading south for the winter.

DITCH PLAINS / MONTAUK

I brought plenty of camera gear for this 4-day trip including a water-sports helmet with POV camera mount, a couple of DSLR bodies and a variety of lens along with my Olympus waterproof point-and-shoot camera. Thursday was a day hopeful that some remnants of Hurricane Jose would leave an aftermath of head-high waves with a glossy finish. Three of us headed out in the Toyo FJ for Ditch Plains known for a good point break making it easier for me to shoot from the shoreline.  Unfortunately Hurricane Jose lost his mojo and the waves were further outside and not really that big.  Some good poser shots in the parking lot and some shots of other folks coming in towards the rocks.

DEMO POINT / ROBERT MOSES STATE PARK

On Friday, the local surfing community had surrendered to the fact that Hurricane Jose just wasn’t going to deliver but my buddy Sean thought heading out to Demo Point aka Democratic Point  would be another great point break that I could shoot from the shoreline.

Demo Point, Robert Moses State Park

After picking up a couple more surfing pals in the state park parking lot, we headed out to Demo Point.  The FJ laughs at these little off-road obstacles and before long we were in the main parking area for the surf break.  Plenty of sunshine makes it easier to capture the action photos and I was able to shoot approximately 3000 images before the swell started to fade out.

My buddy gave me his unabashed history lesson about Robert Moses and I had no idea of this Master Builders influence in American engineering infrastructure.

Robert Moses was a public official who worked mainly in the New York metropolitan area. Known as the “master builder” of mid-20th century New York City, Long Island, Rockland County, and Westchester County, he is sometimes compared to Baron Haussmann of Second Empire Paris, and was one of the most polarizing figures in the history of urban development in the United States. His decisions favoring highways over public transit helped create the modern suburbs of Long Island and influenced a generation of engineers, architects, and urban planners who spread his philosophies across the nation despite not training in those professions. Moses would call himself a “coordinator” and was referred to in the media as a “master builder”.

Robert Moses simultaneously held twelve titles (including NYC Parks Commissioner and Chairman of the Long Island State Park Commission), but was never elected to any public office (he ran only once, for governor of New York as a Republican in 1934 and lost to Herbert H. Lehman). Nevertheless, he created and led numerous public authorities that gave him autonomy from the general public and elected officials. Through these authorities, he controlled millions of dollars in income from his projects, such as tolls, and he could issue bonds to borrow vast sums for new ventures with little or no input from legislative bodies, allowing him to circumvent the power of the purse as it normally functioned in the United States, and the process of public comment on major public works. As a result of Moses’ work, New York has the United States’ greatest proportion of public benefit corporations, which are the prime mode of infrastructure building and maintenance in New York and account for most of the state’s debt.

RB Profile

ABOUT ROBERT BAKER

I have been shooting for $$ since 2000 opening my shop with a Nikon D1.  I am primarily interested in shooting adventure lifestyle and travel with a host of my  day-to-day clients being within the industrial sector.

Many of my editorial stock photos have been published in all major news outlets, with my primary focus is distributing my images on a client-by-client basis to ensure their branding is unique and compelling.

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