Photographing the Rockaways' Surfers Before Hurricane Sandy

In February 2005, a thick layer of snow blanketed the beaches at the Rockaways in Queens, New York. Clouds swirled; a blizzard was on the way. Still, a lone figure struck out toward the waves, surfboard under his arm.

The photographer Susannah Ray captured this image seven years before Hurricane Sandy swept through the eastern seaboard. That catastrophic storm would permanently alter the surfing community of the Rockaways, of which Ray was both a member and an observer. Her series, Right Coast, on display through August 9 at the Rockaway Beach Surf Club and collected in a new book, documents the pre-Sandy years between 2004 and 2011, when the rickety wooden boardwalk still stood.