“My name is Geoff Rowling. I'm an artist. I came to New York, 1980 and was in the Lower East Side. I was a teenager; I was like 19, and I slept in Central Park my first night, and I ended up in the Lower East Side. So I did my art thing in the 80s there. We kind of...

“Hi, my name is Amber Walters. I grew up in Broad Channel. I have lived there my whole life. Growing up in Broad Channel, you kind of know everyone. It's similar to, like, Rockaway and Breezy; it's just like a small-town feel where your neighbors are gonna be your...

“Joe Fox, um, 69 years old, born in 1957. I grew up in Brooklyn in what they call now Old Mill Basin: 53rd and L. But when I grew up, it had no name, so literally when people say, ‘What neighborhood are you from?’ I say, ‘eh it’s kinda hard to say; there’s no name for...

“Hello! My name is Brian Gillen. Brian Patrick Gillen. Born and raised in Rockaway Beach. I grew up here, and it was great. It was a great place to grow up…I remember as a kid, we always looked forward to turning 16 so that you could take the lifeguard test. And I...

“I’m Gina Jurlando. I grew up in Blue Point on Long Island, and I moved to Rockaway about nine years ago. I actually bought a boat from the previous owner of Jupiter Club. So it's been very full circle, and that's kind of how we [Gina and her husband] ended up in...

“I was born in ‘76 in Marine Park. Fillmore Avenue. And then, uh, when I was a kid we had a cabana in Breezy Point. So you know, as I got older, we moved upstate for a little while, and then I came back to the city in the mid-‘90s. And then, um, I wanted to live on...

“I'm Chris LaMura. I am 39 years old, and I’ve been living in Breezy Point for my entire life.” I sat with Chris at his home in Breezy. He greeted me on crutches. Within the same week earlier in the summer, he and his wife welcomed a beautiful third baby, and Chris...

“My name is Clarence Tobias, better known as Toby. Um, born and raised in Trinidad. Been in Rockaway for I don't know, 35, 40. Sorry, my bad. Thirty-seven… 37 years now.” I met Toby waxing his board at the surf lockers by Beach 67th Street. “I ended up here through a...

I sat with Lorraine Agoglia one afternoon on her beautiful Neponsit porch. “I moved here 30 years ago, from Oceanside. Not far, but I never knew about Rockaway. We went east,” Agoglia said. “My nana was from Astoria, Queens, and when she heard I was coming back to...

“My name is Nick. My last name is Cregor. I was– I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Nice place to grow up.” I met with Nick at Washed Up on Beach 97th one morning. “I went to NYU. I was 18 or so; I was like enamored with New York. Was more interested in just living in...