The Montauk Bureau

I haven't summered to Montauk in a few years. The last time I was even here was an "off-season" jaunt out to see the film about Stephanie Gilmore a couple years ago. In the "on-season" interim, apparently a much ballyhoo'd disaster has struck the eastern tip of Long Island in the form of city slickers bringing a decidedly bridge&tunnel feel to a once sleepy fishing village. And I've stayed away, content to hold my nose in the most dramatic posture I can contort myself into in an attempt to pretend like I really don't want to be bumbling about the rocks off Dirt Lot. But life has a way of pushing the proverbial crème brûlée right back into your self-satisfied face, this time taking the novel approach of employing an acute bout of surfshackbuildingfailureitis. And so I find myself here again, lapping up the luxury and grinning sheepishly. I surfed this morning in foggy, mush blahs sou'easterly blotto, off the aforementioned parking lot, on the shittily massive pink softtop, doing my very best to take a blunt scalpel to my dignity hari-kari style. And it was working! Until I realized how much fun I was having despite the pain. There's only so much you can do.

Emily Anderson of The Usual has been cavorting around with her pal Yasha, making good magazine and finding time to make other Montauk-soaked things as well. In her words:

About the series: Everyone has a story to tell. Equipped with an iPhone for shooting in one hand and a lobster roll in another, we set out to uncover them all for The Usual Conversations, a new ongoing video series. An extension of our print editions, we started “Conversations” in our own backyard, Montauk, speaking to the individuals that make this “drinking village with a fishing problem” so special.

About Jimmy: Meet Jimmy “Is My Board Done Yet” Goldberg—the best, and only, surfboard ding repairman in Montauk. Given our stellar surfing skills, we’re at Jimmy's more often than we're actually in the water. It was no surprise then that in the hours we spent watching our boards get bandaged back to health he became our default therapist. Here, we dig into Jimmy's life experiences - ship scuttling, commercial vs. sport fishing, boozing, and his passion for surfing.