‘Death Sticks’ at Rockaway Beach Will Soon Be No More

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times The city is removing the old wooden groins from Beach 87th to Beach 91st in Rockaway, citing their danger to surfers.

They lurk just below the surface at high tide, ready to scrape or snarl an unsuspecting surfer. They have shattered boards, ripped open skin and wet suits, impaled unsuspecting bathers and caused at least one death in recent years.

But these are not the famed gray creatures of the deep, although they have similar jagged edges. Instead, they’re the long lines of wooden groins that extend from the shore into the surf at Rockaway Beach. Resembling worn down telephone poles and known by locals as the “death sticks,” or simply “sticks,” they were installed decades ago to mimic the effect of rock jetties, prevent beach erosion and, according to some local surfers, protect the shape of incoming waves.

Now, the two wooden groins from a main surfing spot between Beach 87th Street and Beach 91st Street are being removed to make it safer for the growing number of surfers that the beach has attracted.

“I can’t tell you how many people come in here all cut up from those things,” said Steve Stathis, the owner of Boarders Surf Shop and one of the early pioneers of Rockaway surfing.

As surfing has boomed in Rockaway, mostly with D.F.D.-ers (local speak for “down for the day”) who are unfamiliar with the surf, the sticks have been claiming a greater number of surfboards and stitch counts.

The danger they pose is, in part, because they are impediments, but also because of their deteriorating nature: after years of pounding surf and ripping current, each stick has been worn down to a barnacle-covered nub, rendered invisible by the dark blue-green water during high tides.

In 2010, Charles DeVoe, a 28 year-old fashion model, died after a surfboard leash attached to his ankle became tangled in the sticks, leaving him submerged for minutes before rescuers could get to him. Countless other injuries have prompted the city to remove the sticks.

The removal process will take about six weeks, according to the city’s Department of Design and Construction. The surfing beach will be closed during the process, which has angered some residents and the operators of local businesses who question why the city is doing the work during the summer. Surf shops and restaurants that line the beach have seen a dip in business since the closing.

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times A worker attaches chains from a backhoe to remove part of a groin.

The department says it had no choice but to do the work now because the sticks had become too dangerous and no longer served any erosion control purpose.

But on a recent morning some surfers didn’t seem to care that beach was closed. A chain-link fence that extended well out into the water meant to keep people off the wave. But local surfers simply paddled past it, turning left at the end of the fence and paddling for the rolling waves breaking off the rock jetty. Out on the water, the conversation among the surfers was about the sticks and the closing of the beach.

“They’re the things I am most cautious about when I’m out surfing,” said Matthew Kiss, a lifelong Rockaway surfer. “Not big waves or currents, not other surfers. It’s the sticks.”

Yet, as is typical in Rockaway, a once-secluded urban beach town still adjusting to the surge of hipsters that have arrived, some locals are leery of any change.

The hesitation rests mainly in the unknown effect removing the sticks will have on their favorite spot. Locals credit the sticks with securing sandbars during storms to allow waves from the Atlantic to heave, barrel and peel far enough from the shore to allow for long, clean rides.

“My feelings are really love-hate for these sticks,” said Ron Schein, 37, a Rockaway surfer who would like to see the sticks preserved, but reinforced and made more prominent so they are always visible. “There is a reason that there is a peak off of each set of sticks. Just the same, I’m very sensitive to the fact that we’ve lost two people to the sticks over the last few years.”

There’s also the sense of character the sticks gave to the break. A few surfers likened it to “Dogtown,” the famous documentary on California surf and skate pioneers who had to navigate a relative maze of clutter when surfing in the 1970s. To some, the sticks gave Rockaway surfing its edge.

“It sounds kind of ridiculous, but it’s kind of a rite of passage to run into them when you’re surfing here,” said Thomas Brookins, a Rockaway filmmaker and surfer. “I’ve got my scrapes.”