I know the photographer as we occasionally get to surf together in Florida and she’s cool hip and it is reflected in this book. I’m from New England so I wanted a slice of the Northeast and this book doesn’t disappoint. It gives a great perspective on the surf climate in NYC, harsh elements and all. The photography is both beautiful and gritty and it is a large book which is great, no straining to see photos. I also enjoy surfers’ ideas about surfing accompanying the images. Would be a great gift to a NYC surfer. [Mary Charbonneau, FL 2020]

I was away for a couple days. I just got home and the beautiful book with the amazing message in the signing was here waiting for Kodelia and I. Andreea, the book is amazing. I love the big idea “you should have been here an hour ago” I love the pictures of the surfers in full hooded wetsuits I love all of it the words the interview the pictures it is like a perfect song. You should be proud of this work. I will continue to share it and Kodelia’s personalized message made it so special for us. I love “stay salty”.
[Jackie Nett, NY 2018]

Just had time to look through the beautiful book. It made me feel COLD, scared, freaked out, and happy at the same time. Lord I will be nicer to the kind ocean down here. Awesome work, I really enjoyed it. I will have to flip through it again when I think it's tough here.
[Mark Mullen, Cocoa Beach, FL 2018]

SURF NYC is not your normal book of surf photos. It doesn't just capture the peak of the Empire State action. It features a few top standouts like Mikey DeTemple and Leif Engstrom, but it's far more dominated by normal surfers doing normal things on normal waves, interspersed with passionate first-person accounts of surfing's therapeutic powers. Waters prefers to turn her lens on the absurdist scenes of summer crowds instead of the best barrel. The steely urban architecture dominating nature. The stunning wide-format landscape shots elbowed up against the ragged outer limbs of the greatest city on earth. But isn't that what surfing in New York is all about? Legendary surf scribe Derek Hynd says it best in the book's afterword: "An upside down cake to the teeming metropolis." Andreea Waters may have come late to surfing and surf photography, but she does a better job than any sharp shooter focused just on the best surfers in the best waves.
[Nick McGregor, Eastern Surf Magazine 2016]

Yay for East Coast surfers. I'm biased as a Rockaway resident... Just so psyched to have a New York surf book.
[Amazon Buyer 2016]

Surfing in New York City? Heck, yeah! The culture and waves may be different from surfing in Southern California, but surfers surf, and some of them live in the Big Apple. Photographer Andreea Waters documents New York City surfing in her book Surf NYC.

Combining stunning photography and brief statements from New York surfers, Waters highlights the differences and similarities when comparing New York surfers and surfers from area more traditionally associated with surfing. Like surfers everywhere, NYC surfers have an almost religious dedication to the sport. (In some cases, there's nothing "almost" about it, like the surfer who mused, "Surfing is my religion, and the ocean is my temple." In New York, though, given the unpredictability of conditions, the weather, and the logistics of getting to the beach, the dedication takes on another level of madness.

One huge factor in NYC surfing is the weather. Sometimes the best waves are in the winter. In the pictures the surfers are almost always seen in head-to-toe neoprene. This quote typifies the attitude of openness to whatever weather conditions come: "If you've ever dropped into a perfect wave, yet complained about the falling snow blurring your vision . . . then you know what it's like to surf in New York." A little snow? Big deal--if the waves are breaking, he's there!

The pictures sometimes look like they could be taken at any surfing beach. Well, except for the ones with the high-rise apartment blocks. Given that so much of the NYC surf scene is an experience of disappointing conditions and trying to avoid the "should have been here an hour ago" phenomenon, I wish she would have included more pictures of flat seas and disappointed surfers. Granted, that's not as much fun to look at, but it would have given a fuller picture of the NYC surfing life. Also, I was wishing she would have identified the locations of the shots, especially the ones that have no buildings. In her afterword she explained that she deliberately chose not to give locations, to protect the surf culture. I guess there are still "secret spots" in the most densely populated region of the country!

Surfers everywhere will delight in Waters's pictures and descriptions of NYC surfing. I'm guess Rockaway Beach is not destined to become a mecca for surfers from around the world, but those NYC surfers who lug their boards on the subway in the middle of winter in hopes of catching some waves know there's something special in NYC.
[Paul Mastin, Amazon Buyer 2016]