New York Surfing as a grad school student next year

come to #Belmar,you will sponsored in a week by #quicksilver ,be on the world tour in 2,and be homeless at the soup ktchen by week 3

 

dude are you kidding? there are trains all over the city. what you would do is walk out of your apt. w surfboard.
go to the nearest subwaystation which in most cases should be no more than a couple blocks from anywhere in the city. then you're off to the rock.

 

Not so fast...

As he heads underground with his board for the first time he'll begin to run as he hears the train pull into the station. He'll fumble 3 times with his MetroCard, heave his board over the turnstile and smack the fins into Rosalinda from the Bronx, who will give him the first stinkeye of the day. He'll get to the edge of the platform just as the doors close...biiing-bong... and Rosalinda will glide away from him with a smirk.

It'll be 20 minutes before the next A train rumbles in. He'll get on not realizing that it's heading to Lefferts Blvd and not Far Rockaway. As the train pulls into Euclid Ave 35 minutes later he won't budge from his seat. His last chance to switch to a Rockaway-bound A will be squandered on the stare he gives the cute chick with all the luggage.

When he realizes the last stop is nowhere near the beach he'll walk over to the mid-train conductor who'll give him stinkeye number two. He'll backtrack to Euclid for stinkeyes 3 though 7 and then wait 15 minutes for a train, but again, it'll be the wrong train. When the Far Rockaway A finally shows up he'll nearly be out of stoke, but a few minutes later the scenery will get more interesting. A revival. And then it'll finally dawn on him; Queens is a sh¡thole.

He'll smartly get off at Broad Channel, wait another eternity for the shuttle, and after two complete revolutions of the minute hand on his watch he'll finally step off the train and smell the ocean -- along with the urine and garbage. He'll have another few minutes to wonder what he's gotten himself into as he walks south and prepares for stinkeyes 8 through 44.

[video=vimeo;38788768]http://vimeo.com/38788768[/video]

 

Seems like you've really done some research. I'm sure you'll be fine.
Easiest way is to take a cab to Penn Sta... From there take the Subway to Grand Central... Then take a cab to south Street Seaport. Paddle from there to Rock is very short.

 

Here's a plan my best friend executed while he was in a similar situation (in med school, carless in Boston) He started a club with some other like-minded students (it was a fishing club, but it would apply to surfing). Once he had like 5 or 10 "official" members they were eligible for some funds from the student activities fund. This money was used to hire transportation or even get a school van for the outings. Dude knew how to work the system.

I would also think zipcars might be an option in nyc these days, especially if you got a few people to split it with.