Latest news with #SebastiánLasaosaRogers
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
A Section of Rockaway Beach Is Closed to Surfing (and Swimming) for the 2025 Season
Two years and some $12 million of beach replenishment to the tune of 360,000 cubic yards of beach replenishment on the western edge of Rockaway Beach has, sadly, done little to remediate erosion and dangerous surfing and swimming conditions. After the passing of a surfer this spring and two teens last year, the National Parks Service has decided to prohibit surfing and surf-bathing along the beach this summer. Jacob Riis Beach has about as storied a past as any in New York City. It has been envisioned and re-envisioned any number of ways, and it has borne witness to a number of cultural and countercultural movements. Being positioned on the far western edge of Long Island, it has also been the subject of shifting sands—thanks to hurricanes and developers alike. The result has been a mess of sand moving every which way, which unfortunately exposes old pilings, jetties, and concrete walls comprising a series of 14 bays that simply have not stood up to the test of time, which, frankly, is the same old story told. That series of bays and the disbursement of sand from the jetties, pilings, and walls can, on occasion anyhow, set up some good surf for those who know when and where to look. No easy feat. And it's no easy feat to surf, either. Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers, the 35-year-old surfer and filmmaker who perished at the beach was among a small pod of surfers when his board was spotted tombstoning among the pilings. Surfers and rescuers did what they could, The Rockaway Times reported, but 20 minutes of CPR proved no National Park Service told New York City nonprofit newsroom Gothamist that it does not intend to deposit any more sand in the area in the near future, and that for now, Bay 1 will remain closed for the summer. Still, much of that section of beach remains unfinished and in disrepair following recent hurricanes, and entering the water anywhere around the western edge of the beach is best done with extreme caution, or not at all. It's also worth noting that this isn't the first such loss of life on the old wooden piers along Rockaway Beach, and many have called for their removal, particularly since the rock jetties were put in place, but that—whether you ask the National Park Service or the Army Core of Engineers—is easier (and cheaper) said than done. For now, there are plenty of safer spots to find a wave without razor-sharp piling remnants plaguing the lineup, tempting though that uncrowded lineup may be. Stay safe out there, folks.A Section of Rockaway Beach Is Closed to Surfing (and Swimming) for the 2025 Season first appeared on Surfer on May 24, 2025
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Yahoo
Surfer who died at NYC beach got caught in deadly jetty residents begged officials to remove for years
An award-winning filmmaker drowned at Jacob Riis Park in Queens last week after his surfboard apparently got tangled in a decrepit wooden jetty, a deadly obstruction residents have begged the federal government to remove for years. Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers, 35, of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, drowned on April 12 while surfing near the federally-owned park's eastern shoreline at Bay 1, police sources said. The area is a longtime hotspot for queer sunbathers that is now plagued by erosion rapidly washing away the beach. The dilapidated, 70-plus-year-old jetties in the area are routinely submerged under water at high tide, so it's unclear if Rogers was trying to navigate them or didn't see them. His lifeless body was pulled ashore by local beachgoers who spotted a surfboard 'tombstoning,' with half of it sticking upright out of the water. They unsuccessfully tried to revive Rogers. Riis Park has been the scene of at least three teen drownings when lifeguards weren't present during the past two years, including two who died last June at Bay 1, according to the Rockaway Times. Rockaways residents and a councilwoman representing nearby beachfront communities told The Post they've been trying to get the National Park Service or US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the jetties for years, but the pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, they said they've been repeatedly told the issue needs further studying. 'These agencies have continued to drag their feet on this, and now we have a tragedy on our hands,' said Council Minority Leader Joann Ariola (R-Queens). 'We should not have to wait for a disaster to strike before changes are made.' 'The reality is that these jetties are killing people,' said an avid surfer and longtime resident of Neponsit, which borders Riis' Bay 1. Rogers would routinely come to Rockaway to surf over the past decade and 'had a deep love and appreciation of the ocean,' recalled his friend and fellow surfer Chris Westcott on Facebook. 'Sebastian was a talented cinematographer, human rights activist, and total sweetheart who put everyone around him at ease with his presence,' he said. 'I remember the way his eyes lit up in and around the water.' Rogers' films include the 2021 documentary 'The Art of Making It,' which follows a group of rising artists and won an Audience Award at the SXSW festival. The Spanish-American cinematographer recently directed 'Freeing Juanita,' a documentary that premiered in December and follows a Guatemalan family's thousand-mile journey to Mexico to help free a loved one unjustly imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit. Both Ariola and members of the Neponsit Property Owners Association said the park service has its priorities backwards considering the agency allowed the city to site a notorious 'tent city' housing 2,000 migrants from November 2023 through January at nearby Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn — despite the federal parkland being in a high-risk flood zone. Riis' beaches, which stretch over a mile along the west side of the Rockaway peninsula, have been plagued by growing sand erosion over the past decade that have contributed to dangerous swimming conditions. In 2023, the Army Corps dumped 360,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach to help replenish it, but most of it washed away within six months — exposing deteriorating wooden groins, rockwork, and other structures. The erosion created enough unsafe conditions for the NPS to restrict public access last summer along Bays 1 to 5 on the park's east end near Neponsit. The Neponsit Property Owners Association says it prefers Bay 1 remain shuttered — at least this upcoming beach season — to avoid more tragedies. The NPS did not return messages, and Rogers' family could not be reached for comment.
