Windsurfers Glide Across A Snowy Coney Island [Video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo43KjMt-MQ&feature=youtu.be

While the bone chilling winds are enough to make most of us want to crawl under the covers and watch hours of Netflix, for some New Yorkers, the gusts are an irresistible pull towards the ocean.

We stopped by a desolate stretch of Brighton Beach/Coney Island on Saturday to chat with the motley crew of kite surfers, skiers, and skinny dippers who come out each winter to take advantage of the open space and brutally icy winds.

“We need to get our fix. Advanced kiters, we don’t care if it’s cold, we have the proper gear,” says Peter Danilava, who is an instructor at New York Kite Center. “I feel the wind and I just need to get out on the water.”

After December, kiter surfers typically wear dry suits with thermals underneath, so they don’t actually make much contact with the water, and one kite surfer, Jey Lagrons from Bensonhurst, even took his kite and board onto the snow-covered sands, leaving wave-like patterns on white powder.

“It’s too soft,” he says of the snow. “It needs to freeze more to work.”

For these athletes, winter water sports are a way of life. One skier, Igor Iobkov, who lives in Brighton Beach, told us he’s been skiing across the beach every winter since moving to the neighborhood from Russia 25 years ago.

We even ran into some brave bathers, who were taking a dip in little more than their birthday suits, but we will spare you the painful-looking photos.