Dangerous jetty caused surfers tragic death at federal park in Queens: residents

An award-winning filmmaker drowned at Jacob Riis Park in Queens last week after his surfboard apparently got tangled in a decrepit wooden jetty, a deadly obstruction residents have begged the federal government to remove for years.Sebastián Lasaosa Rogers, 35, of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, drowned on April 12 while surfing near the federally-owned park’s eastern shoreline at Bay 1, police sources said.The area is a longtime hotspot for queer sunbathers that is now plagued by erosion rapidly washing away the beach.The dilapidated, 70-plus-year-old jetties in the area are routinely submerged under water at high tide, so it’s unclear if Rogers was trying to navigate them or didn’t see them.

His lifeless body was pulled ashore by local beachgoers who spotted 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 at least three teen drownings when lifeguards weren’t present during the past two years, including two who died last June at Bay 1, according to the Rockaway Times.Rockaways residents and a councilwoman representing nearby beachfront communities told The Post they’ve been trying to get the National Park Service or US Army Corps of Engineers to remove the jetties for years, but the pleas have fallen on deaf ears.Instead, they said they’ve been repeatedly told the issue needs further studying.“These agencies have continued to drag their feet on this, and now we have a tragedy on our hands,” said Council Minority Leader 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,” said an avid surfer and longtime resident of Neponsit, which borders Riis’ Bay 1.Rogers would routinely come to Rockaway to surf over the past decade and “had a deep love and appreciation of the ocean,” recalled his friend and fellow surfer Chris Westcott on Fac...