Search for LI surfer off Gilgo resumes

Officials resumed their search Saturday morning for a missing Old Field surfer in the waters off Gilgo State Park, a parks police spokesman said.

The surfer, Zachary Gottfried, 31, was lost in the high surf, with waves as tall as 10 feet, about 6 p.m. Thursday, said Capt. Bruce Marx of the State Park Police, which has jurisdiction over the beach.

Teams from Marx's department, the Coast Guard, Long Beach Police Department and Nassau and Suffolk police searched by land, sea and air Friday night, said Det. Sgt. Thomas Duignan of the State Park Police.

On Friday, a Babylon Bay constable recovered a paddle belonging to Gottfried, Duignan said. His surfboard was found Thursday.

In the hours before going missing, Gottfried and another man crossed the Great South Bay by boat from Amityville, docked along Ocean Parkway and walked across the parkway to enter the water on the south shore of Fire Island, Marx said.

Both men were in waters where the surf was 5 to 10 feet, and the National Weather Service had issued a "high surf advisory" for the area.

Gottfried was lost in water about a quarter-mile east of the sand-road entrance to Gilgo State Park, Marx said.

The second surfer was able to leave the water safely, Marx said.

Eddie Hilbert, who owns the Gilgo Beach Inn, a surf shop and bar north of the roadway, was on the beach Thursday evening with other witnesses who saw Gottfried bobbing about 75 feet offshore.

Hilbert said Gottfried appeared to be unconscious and was being swept westward. He also said the water was far too rough for anyone to try to rescue him.

Reached at her home Friday, Gottfried's mother declined to comment, and his business partner, who was with him when he disappeared, also said he didn't want to talk to a reporter.

T.R. Fatscher, owner of a boat repair shop near Island Riders, a Copiague kiteboard, surf and water sports store, said Gottfried owns Island Riders and was an avid surfer.

Fatscher said he was shocked to learn Gottfried was the missing surfer and said he would travel anywhere to surf.

"He travels to surf and kiteboard," he said. "That's his life."

With Matthew Chayes and Gary Dymski