Rockaway Beach, Queens

Rockaway Beach is New York City's surf beach, a long barrier-island strand in the borough of Queens reachable by subway and ferry from Manhattan. Designated surfing-only zones make it the one place to legally surf within the city limits, and it has grown into a genuine hub of urban surf culture.

The wave is a beach break shaped by the rock jetties spaced along the shore, which gather sand into workable rights and lefts. Conditions are usually modest and beginner-friendly, though the jetties can focus a noticeably better and hollower wave for experienced surfers when a solid swell rolls in off the open Atlantic. The beaches around Beach 90th Street form the main surfing zone, kept separate from swimming areas by the jetties and local rules.

The remarkable thing is the access: surfers ride the A train or the ferry with boards under their arms and step off a short walk from the sand, giving the beach a diverse, energetic and distinctly city crowd. Water is cold outside summer, so wetsuits are the norm through much of the year even here.

Autumn brings the best surf, when Atlantic hurricane swells reach the coast and the dense summer beach crowds finally thin out. The boardwalk behind the sand, rebuilt after major storm damage, is lined with taco stands, concessions and surf shops that have made Rockaway a fashionable warm-weather escape. For a real surf session within reach of one of the world's great cities, few beaches can match its improbable convenience. The break became a symbol of the neighbourhood's recovery and reinvention after the boardwalk was rebuilt following major storm damage.