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The Appeal and Danger of the Beach in the Dark

Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

The lifeguards leave their posts at 6 p.m. at Rockaway Beach. After that, the police try to keep an eye on the seven miles or so until 9 p.m.

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By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

Published: August 18, 2009

In the darkness, he looked disoriented as he groped his way down the beach with what looked like a cane. He stopped here and there, bending over to inspect the sand, assess the tide and scold teenagers as they dipped their toes into the water.

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Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

Six swimmers have drowned off Rockaway Beach this year, despite signs warning about the danger of swimming at night.

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Béatrice de Géa for The New York Times

A beachcomber, Richard Fisher, 65, warns swimmers. "The waves sneak up on you at night," he said. "They pull you in and you’re dead before you know it."

As he walked away from the waves, the light from the street brought his profile into focus: a metal detector in one hand, a scooper in the other and a satchel around his waist. The sky was darkening, and Richard Fisher, 65, was at work at the edge of New York City, the seven-mile coastal stretch in Queens known as Rockaway Beach.

“The waves sneak up on you at night,” he said. “They pull you in and you’re dead before you know it.”

He was alone, and all he could talk about were the drownings that happened in the moonlight: the man who had died the week before after plunging into the water to save his daughter, the boy who had been swallowed by the waves the week before that.

It is familiar news along these waters, fodder for cautionary tales drummed into the minds of local children.

The deaths shine light on a world that comes to life in the shadows of one of the city’s corners. It is a place where low-income workers come to get relief from hard labor, where retirees gather for a hint of Florida and where immigrants attempt to reclaim memories of the tropics.

It is also a place for swimming, even though it is illegal after 6 p.m., when the lifeguards blow their whistles and come down from their posts. So far this year, six people have drowned in the Rockaways, some during the day, according to news reports.

But that has not stopped families, especially young people, from coming to the beach at night under the blinking silhouettes of jetliners leaving Kennedy Airport.

Police officers patrol the area until 9 p.m. or so, combing the beaches on foot and in S.U.V.s, but daring swimmers know to wait until the police leave to dive in, stepping past signs in English and Spanish warning against nighttime swimming.

A popular weekend routine is to meet friends at inland clubs, go for a drink at a favored Boardwalk spot, the Sand Bar, and head for the water.

As the day’s 90-degree heat began to retreat on Monday and the sky turned orange and pink, Ronny Gudiel, 25, ran toward the water. Mr. Gudiel, an air-conditioner technician who came by subway from Bushwick, Brooklyn, with his companion and a friend, said the beach was an escape from long days on the factory floor.

He and his friends sipped Red Bull and debated the politics of his home country, Honduras, which he left eight years ago. The rhythms of reggae blared from a nearby boom box. Mr. Gudiel said the beach reminded him of the shores of his native country, a sight he never expected in New York.

“The water is good,” he said. “It’s hot. It’s like Miami.”

As he spoke, the breeze carried his hat several feet away. It was a relentless sea wind, the kind that, in an instant, stokes waves, musses hair and coats your skin with ocean dew and the ripe smell of seaweed.

On the Boardwalk, a group of youths parked their bikes, stuffed a few beers into their bag and headed for the water. Were they going swimming?

“Right now?” one said. “Yeah, right. If they catch you, you’re a goner.”

An officer strolled by, scanned the horizon and kept walking. He whispered to his partner, returned to his car and sped off past the racquetball courts.

Down the beach several miles, shortly after 10 p.m., a group of four women barbecued frozen jumbo hamburgers at the curb. The women sat in a row, each chatting on a cellphone and eating off plastic bags spread out like napkins.

This was the eastern part of the beach, home to tattered high-rises and streets strewn with potholes. To the west, the neighborhoods grow wealthier: Instead of drab apartment buildings, there are nursing homes, churches, luxury condominiums (plastered with signs proclaiming “You Deserve to Live Here!”) and well-kept homes in the blocks around Jacob Riis Park.

Toward the poorer end, the waters are calm but deceptively deep. An ambulance sat at the end of Beach Ninth Street with its lights off, waiting.

Nearby, along the shore, a family of five threw a large white net into the water. They wore headlamps and carried blue buckets, and joked happily about how many fish they would catch that night. Five? 500? 1,000?

A man extended his hand, holding some flipping silverfish in his palm. “We’re from Bangladesh,” Mohammad Sikder said. “These fish are like the ones we catch there.”

“I’m from America!” shouted his nephew, a sixth grader at Public School 86 in Queens, kicking a crab crawling from the net.

The family comes once a week from Queens and the Bronx to fish but never to swim, because they believe it is too dangerous. Mr. Sikder’s wife is collecting creatures for an aquarium; the others are just looking for a late-night snack. One is a taxi driver, another works for a florist in Grand Central Terminal and another is a cook at a Popeyes.

As midnight approached, a crew of Chinese fishermen at the opposite end planted their poles in the sand and waited for a bite.

Nearby, a figure emerged from the water’s edge. It was Mr. Fisher, the beachcomber, still looking for bounty. He reached into his pockets. The night had turned up only cheap earrings and coins.

More Articles in New York Region » A version of this article appeared in print on August 19, 2009, on page A19 of the New York edition.

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Past Coverage

Union Boss Criticized After a Death in the Surf (August 3, 2008)
Swimmer's Body Washes Ashore (July 25, 2008)
Girl, 16, Swimming in Surf Is Lost Off Rockaway Beach (July 19, 2008)
Metro Briefing | New York: Queens: Boy Is Believed To Have Drowned (September 3, 2004)

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