An award-winning filmmaker drowned at Jacob Riis Park in Queens final week after his surfboard apparently acquired tangled in a decrepit picket jetty, a lethal obstruction residents have begged the federal authorities to take away for years.
Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers, 35, of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, drowned on April 12 whereas browsing close to the federally-owned park’s japanese shoreline at Bay 1, police sources mentioned. The realm is a longtime hotspot for queer sunbathers that’s now stricken by erosion quickly washing away the seaside.
The dilapidated, 70-plus-year-old jetties within the space are routinely submerged below water at excessive tide, so it’s unclear if Rogers was attempting to navigate them or didn’t see them. His lifeless physique was pulled ashore by native beachgoers who noticed a surfboard “tombstoning,” with half of it sticking upright out of the water. They unsuccessfully tried to revive Rogers.
Riis Park has been the scene of a minimum of three teen drownings when lifeguards weren’t current through the previous two years, together with two who died final June at Bay 1, based on the Rockaway Occasions.
Rockaways residents and a councilwoman representing close by beachfront communities informed The Put up they’ve been attempting to get the Nationwide Park Service or US Military Corps of Engineers to take away the jetties for years, however the pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
As an alternative, they mentioned they’ve been repeatedly informed the difficulty wants additional learning.
“These agencies have continued to drag their feet on this, and now we have a tragedy on our hands,” mentioned Council Minority Chief Joann Ariola (R-Queens). “We should not have to wait for a disaster to strike before changes are made.”
“The reality is that these jetties are killing people,” mentioned an avid surfer and longtime resident of Neponsit, which borders Riis’ Bay 1.
Rogers would normally come to Rockaway to surf over the previous decade and “had a deep love and appreciation of the ocean,” recalled his buddy and fellow surfer Chris Westcott on Fb.
“Sebastian was a talented cinematographer, human rights activist, and total sweetheart who put everyone around him at ease with his presence,” he mentioned. “I remember the way his eyes lit up in and around the water.”
Rogers’ movies embrace the 2021 documentary “The Art of Making It,” which follows a gaggle of rising artists and received an Viewers Award on the SXSW competition.
The Spanish-American cinematographer not too long ago directed “Freeing Juanita,” a documentary that premiered in December and follows a Guatemalan household’s thousand-mile journey to Mexico to assist free a liked one unjustly imprisoned for against the law she didn’t commit.
Each Ariola and members of the Neponsit Property Homeowners Affiliation mentioned the park service has its priorities backwards contemplating the company allowed the town to web site a infamous “tent city” housing 2,000 migrants from November 2023 by means of January at close by Floyd Bennet Discipline in Brooklyn — regardless of the federal parkland being in a high-risk flood zone.
Riis’ seashores, which stretch over a mile alongside the west aspect of the Rockaway peninsula, have been stricken by rising sand erosion over the previous decade which have contributed to harmful swimming circumstances.
In 2023, the Military Corps dumped 360,000 cubic yards of sand on the seaside to assist replenish it, however most of it washed away inside six months — exposing deteriorating picket groins, rockwork, and different buildings.
The erosion created sufficient unsafe circumstances for the NPS to limit public entry final summer season alongside Bays 1 to five on the park’s east finish close to Neponsit.
The Neponsit Property Homeowners Affiliation says it prefers Bay 1 stay shuttered — a minimum of this upcoming seaside season — to keep away from extra tragedies.
The NPS didn’t return messages, and Rogers’ household couldn’t be reached for remark.
