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Is Rockaway the new Santa Cruz? While it already has a surf community, the NY Times thinks it's got the right stuff to become the East Coast surf hub now that an SC native, Bobby Vaughn, has opened his shop FTW in Rockaway Park. The paper notes that the area has "good waves, public housing projects and a growing surf culture," and Vaughn (who was a founder of the Von Dutch clothing line) thinks the "main problem with the Rockaway surf scene is that it has not embraced its inner gangster." He thinks that the model surfer "is fearless, tattooed and rides an expensive top-of-the-line surfboard decorated with gang tags." He discovered the area in 2005, after moving here following an incident where he fatally shot his friend (he claimed self defense and was found not guilty). While some locals take issue with his image, he says it's "strictly positive," and that he turned his life around and was reborn after surfing for the first time in NYC. He now wants to "show the street kids here — whether they’re surfers or kids from the projects — that they can do it too.” He'll be conducting anti-gang initiatives through surfing and skateboarding in the area.
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How exactly do public housing projects fit in with the good waves and surf culture?
Bobby Vaughn is a Tool
I think I will try to find my "inner gangster"
It'll be so funny. Watch him change shit there & get Rich while doing it. Everybody'll stay poor talking shit about Queenz. so funny
Turf wars out on the surf. Sounds like a good movie plot.
a movie called 'Surf and Turf'
It writes itself. Like a mixture of Blue Crush and The Wire.
Yes because after my surf I wanna deal with hoodrats and garbage in my sand
Of course everyone rides an "expensive, high-end surf board." Otherwise, why bother? Prada Surf, Far Rockaway anyone?
I'd like to see this little dream of his crash and burn.
Somehow Jan and Dean, the Beach Boys and public housing don't really seem to go together.
Will there be a lot of stripped out woodies parked in the adjoining lot?
east coast surfers are like little girls to the west coast surf establishment but i think they deserve cred for dodging all the hypodermic needles and montauk monsters.
the waves are not very good there.
The city several years ago declared part of the beach near 92nd street to be a surfing area. But those are just guys out having a good time. If this asshole wants to embrace his inner gangsta then I hope he gets tangled in some discarded fishing line and then run over by the next Golden Venture.
Beach 90th Street isn't that dangerous. Unfortunately parking there sucks because of all the douche's who park there and surf, and the home owners who have driveways and *still* take up spots on the street. Thankfully, that's not a problem further up (i.e. past Beach 120th Street), where the Beach is really nice and the ghetto is a distant blip on the horizon.
And if surf guy wants to start a store on Beach 116, let him. This is the place where businesses come to die....
All he's trying to do is re-create the douchey magic he did with Von Dutch by inventing some sort of hardcore east coast surf scene "brand" he can then re-package and market globally to douches dumb enough to buy into it.
Ron Jon 2009 - but "fearless, tattooed and in a gang"
There's always been a "NYC" surf scene here - and with the right manipulation of the image - it can become marketable.
You heard it here first...
All he's trying to do is re-create the douchey magic he did with Von Dutch by inventing some sort of hardcore east coast surf scene "brand" he can then re-package and market globally to douches dumb enough to buy into it.
Ron Jon 2009 - but "fearless, tattooed and in a gang"
There's always been a "NYC" surf scene here - and with the right manipulation of the image - it can become marketable.
You heard it here first...
The article makes it sound like this guy has had enough drama in his life to warrant his move from Santa Cruz to Rockaway Beach.
It just makes him look like he is trying to exploit(cash in, make a buck)gang culture and surf culture at the same time.
Unfortunately the small, core group of Rockaway Beach surfers are not going to be enough to support his new surf shop, regardless of his gangsta vision.
rockaway is incredible. where else in this world is beach front property considered crap? this is the same sand, same ocean as the hamptons. but 1/5th the distance, 1/1000th the price. its a beach town , inside of the city. anywhere else in the entire world waterfront property is GOLD. people get so excited about going to a crumby floating makeshift pool, or a beach created on the bank of the river. both places give you rashs on your knees and elbows. rockaway is the real thing. it will succeed bc of its real value, the sand, not the hype as other areas have bought into. the area isnt looking to become greenpoint, or wburg. it wants to be what it is supposed to be.
Teaching thugs how to surf, hmm. I look forward to dodging bullets from surf-by shootings. The Rockaways has a while to go before it lifts itself up from the dump it currently is...
Surf by shootings? Ha! I can't stop laughing! Hysterical!
Surfers with guns, been there, done that. Doesn't anybody else remember the Skeet Surfin' craze?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf7_v9d2Ghw
"You've got that kamikaze look Johnny."
The surfing at Rockaway is crappy and crowded. Why bother?
He thinks gang tags on surfboards are cool, but wants to lead anti-gang initiatives in surfing. What is wrong with this picture?
Anyone who wears anything Von Dutch is a complete and utter idiot. $200 for a hat? I never thought a clothing company could be more d-baggy than Abercrombie and Fitch until I saw K-Fed and Lohan wearing Von Dutch clothing.
The saddest part is that Von Dutch himself was the definition of cool, but his memory has been tarnished by morons like this guy. I suggest he watch Troma's "Surf Nazis Must Die" to see some real surf gangs.
He now wants to "show the street kids here — whether they’re surfers or kids from the projects — that they can do it too.” He'll be conducting anti-gang initiatives through surfing and skateboarding in the area.
How touching . . . and profitable.
This guy is a putz. The surfers in Rockaway are not concerned with their image - they just want some waves!
"He'll be conducting anti-gang initiatives through surfing and skateboarding in the area." But he is going to do this by means of? "main problem with the Rockaway surf scene is that it has not embraced its inner gangster."
That will be a hard act to follow if he is successful.
with friends like that....
I'd love to see how long he could keep his inventory with the "inner gangsters" "shopping" his venue.
I agree with most that this is not a healthy addition to the long-standing surf culture in Rockaway. And it's definitely not the message I want my kids to get. Surfing and "inner gangster" have NOTHING in common. And do you know that FTW stands for "F**k the World?" ...Very nice.