Let’s Go Out This Weekend: Think Globally, Surf Locally — September 26-28, 2008

SURFING NYC While catching up with a friend from San Diego last week, I mentioned that I had spent this past summer taking surfing lessons out on Long Island. He was — as a California native — not aware that New York even had surfing opportunities on its shores. But there are, with sizeable surfing towns across Long Island and the Rockaways. With the premiere of the New York Surf Film Festival this weekend, the sport gets even more prominence in the area — so much so that the festival’s first two screenings on Friday are sold out. The first film, though, Guerilla Guru’s “The Rocks” (2008), will also be screened on Sunday at 4 p.m.: Filmed entirely at Rockaway Beach, the movie takes a look at the legitimate, surfable waves that the city’s shores receive. Other movies screening on Friday night include “Musica Surfica” (2008), which follows a surfer and the artistic director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Richard Tognetti, as he organizes a surf trip with friends to experiment using surfboards without fins, which are usually attached to the bottom of a surfboard to help with making turns. Using a finless surfboard can often be highly dangerous. “Musica Surfica” screens at 9:30 p.m. Through Sunday, screening times vary, Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick St. at Laight Street, 212-625-8198, $15 for each screening, $26 for three-film package and for Sunday double-feature package, $125 for VIP pass. For complete information, go to nysurffilm.com.