On Sunday afternoon, cars packed with weekend tourists were backed up for miles along Montauk Highway, inching their way west after the holiday. Long Island Rail Road platforms were equally jam packed, and the Hampton Jitney was sold out. But out at Ditch Plain Beach in Montauk, the lineup bobbed with surfers enjoying a run of fun waves to cap off the Fourth of July weekend. The surf wasn’t spectacular, but it was the kind of steady, reliable break that has made this Montauk beach popular with kids and adults for decades.
“I like that it’s almost always breaking,” said Eider Marder, 11, of Springs, who surfs at Ditch with his brother and friends. “You can always surf here. It’s fun.”
Corey Senese has been teaching people to surf at Ditch Plain since 2008, running CoreysWave surf instruction out of the dirt parking lot, where it’s rare to go a week without waves.
“This is a very popular spot. It’s arguably the most consistent surf break on the East Coast. A week like this, there’s bigger surf coming, but everywhere else on the East Coast is flat — and we’re surfing,” he said.
While some visitors who brought only shortboards complained they couldn’t catch much in the small waves, longboarders were in heaven, cruising down the line.
“The goal of surfing is to have fun. But you have a lot more fun when you start going down the line. In the beginning, you’re just going straight with the wave, but then this whole new world opens up,” Senese said, eyes wide and smiling. “Some people can surf for 10 years just going straight and having a ball, but once you start going down the line, it’s a lot more fun.”
Even Senese’s own 6-year-old daughter, Althea, had a breakthrough day going down the line — something he said they’ve been talking about and visualizing for quite some time.
If 6 sounds young for a surfing breakthrough, it’s par for the course here. Van Noë, 12, of Springs, has been surfing since he was 4. He learned from Bob Miller, the first assistant chief of East Hampton Volunteer Ocean Rescue.
“I would do swimming lessons with him, and then I would go surfing,” Noë said. “It was hard, but it’s probably hard for everyone. Don’t think about it — just go in the water. I just love the water. It’s like my state of grace.”
The beach has been especially accommodating for surfers, swimmers, and sunbathers this season. Over the winter, 20,000 cubic yards of sand were deposited to help build a 16-foot-high dune at Ditch. It not only added protection for the residential neighborhood along the shoreline, but also replaced rocks and debris with a wide stretch of sand. At the end of June, crews brought in an additional 600 cubic yards of sand to help remove a decomposing humpback whale. While the whale is gone, the extra sand remains.
“It’s so nice,” Senese said. “Last year we had a little bit of a better beach than the year before. The year before we were on the rocks having people standing up on their surfboards to practice. Last year was okay, but this year it’s like piles of sand. The town put a lot of sand down and then the whale came and they brought in a ton more sand, and they just left it here for our benefit. I’m feeling good about all of this real estate. We’re at the dirt lot and it’s expansive.”
Soft sand and gentle, rolling surf — the kind of conditions that make you want to stay all day.
“A lot of people have this idea of surfing these big crunchy waves and you have to go through this hardship of getting crushed in the beginning. But there are days when we’re surfing and it’s like one foot and the water is clear and you can see the bottom and it’s really ideal for anyone who’s nervous about surfing. It’s not always a high-risk sport. It can be very leisurely. You can paddle around relaxed and if you’re somebody who is a little nervous and you want that kind of day, you just tell us, and we’ll try to do it. We’ll order it,” Senese said with a smile.
