Followers of this blog will have noticed that we don’t go to the beach a lot. That’s not because we don’t like beaches — we love them. But New York City makes it easy to go to the park and hard to go to the beach. Few of us have cars, for one thing, and getting to the beach is a lot easier with one.
But at least once each summer, we make a point of going. Last summer we braved the hour-long subway ride and the siren song of funnel cake vendors to go to Coney Island, and this past week we went to Riis Beach.
Now, Riis is famous, but few of us had ever been. It’s a right pain to get to — in the end, we wound up hiring a bus to take us there and back. And once you’re there, there’s not much in the way of amenities. A few food vendors on the boardwalk, some fenced-in fields, an abandoned nursing home building for atmosphere.
But…what an amazing beach it is!
Who knew that one hour out of Manhattan there’s a beach that’s as free and loose and casual as you’d find on the coast of Spain or a Greek island or either Riviera (French or Maya)? The sand was packed the day we went — one of the nicest weekend days all summer — but everywhere people were relaxing and getting along, and at least on the eastern end where we set up our towels, as many women were topless as not.
How wonderful, for once, not to be the only ones! Not that we really mind when we are — it’s ok, as long as no one bothers us. But how wonderful to look around and see all sorts of women confidently baring their breasts, and no one thinking anything of it!
So we staked out a little patch of sand for ourselves and lost no time in stripping down to as little as we could get away with.
Not to be undone, one of the three boys we had with us this time decided to rock a gold-sequined C-string, which was the hit of the beach until he made the mistake of wearing it into the water. Hello, wave; goodbye, C-string.
The water was lovely. Choppy, yes, some giant waves, but cold and refreshing and we took many long swims…
…then walked the length of the beach after to dry off.
The beach does have a more “bohemian” (aka, gay) section and a slightly more conservative (aka, straight) section, and we probably got a few more looks when we strayed from one to the other. But just curiosity, not hostility. No catcalls, nothing to break the lovely mood of the day, even when we moved from the sand to the boardwalk.
Back at our towels, we got some reading done. (No, Invisible Man doesn’t count as pulp fiction — it wasn’t the H.G. Wells version! — and neither does The New Yorker, but cut us some slack. We like to read a variety…)
And for those who didn’t bring reading material? There was sun, sun sun.
Eventually 5pm arrived, and our bus with it. We took one last dip…
…then packed our things, bid a rueful adieu to the sand and sun, and motored back to Manhattan.
Would we do it again? Oh, in a heartbeat. It’s tempting to go every week! Yes, Gunnison lets you go fully nude, which would be an improvement; Riis has a history of being used nude, but that was in the 60s and 70s, and the world is more censorious about such things now. (Unless the ocean eats your swimsuit, people understand that!) But Riis more than makes up for it with the warmth of the crowd, the quality of the scenery, and the relative ease of access (Gunnison is in New Jersey, a 50% longer drive). And you really couldn’t ask for a better place to relax with friends.
Probably this was our only beach trip for this summer, but if you’d be excited about joining us for another, we can consider it — just send email to toplesspulpfiction@gmail.com and let us know. August is beach weather too, after all.
Que bella es la naturaleza y la libertad!!
Happy days.
To my eyes, if you turn the male C-string upside down, it looks more like a D-string…
And ‘it’s a right pain to get to’ is a wonderfully English expression! Has the author come under any English influence (good or bad)?
Probably comes from reading a lot of British books!
🙂
Wonderful post. Riis Park was built during the tenure of Robt. Moses, hence the lack of public Transport. Mr. Moses was the godfather of the car in NYC and he bulit the BQE, the FDR and any number of other Automobile highways and other automobile influenced structures. Probably responsible for the Verrazano Bridge and hence the demise of the Brooklyn- SI Ferry.
This is what all beaches should look like. Topless and normal. The male C-String was a hoot !! 😉
All beaches should be top-free.
Ladies…you may know this already,but there is a clothing optional beach at Sandy Hook New Jersey also……enjoy your freedom !!
That’s Gunnison Beach, in Sandy Hook, NJ — the one we wrote about in our post. Read to the end.
Ladies, there is a very easy way to get to Gunnison Beach. https://seastreak.com/daytrips-and-getaways/sandy-hook-beach/
Yes, we looked into that; it still feels like a pain. But we might try it at some point.
Love seeing the Roxane Gay book. Have any of you read her more recent one? Not that either is pulp fiction, but nobody’s judging.
And the c string tale is hilarious.
As a matter of interest, are they acceptable, for men or women, in parts of the city itself? Times Square, for instance, or Central Park?
I don’t know what the law says about C-strings. I would think they’d probably be okay in Central Park if a G-string is (the presence or absence of a thin waist strap wouldn’t seem to be the thing to make a difference legally, since the waist isn’t an area the law says you have to cover), but I’m really not sure. In Times Square, outside of the occasional art project, you won’t see either (or larger bathing suit bottoms either, generally).
Looks like a good time was had by all.
Isn’t Jones beach a nude beach? How difficult is that to travel?
No, it’s not. Or at least not as far as we know.
Well, my memories are almost 25 years old now
It used to have a nude stretch. It got “textiled” about 10 years ago.
Sadly there are lots of examples or nude beaches closing and few new ones.
Yes, we were on what used to be the nude stretch. We would’ve loved to go nude, and were sorry not to see anyone else doing so. But at least the presence of a lot of other topless women made us happy. It’s not everything, but it’s something.
Looks like you all had an amazing day.