Sister Maria Loyola Dougherty, I.H.M. (1925-2008)

A Kindred Spirit



In memory of Sr. Loyola, a kindred spirit if ever there was one.

I first met Sr. Loyola 4 years ago when she came to the 10th Annual Nun's Beach Surf Invitational, held at 110-111th Streets in Stone Harbor. She had always wanted to learn to surf, so a longboard was provided and she stood at the water's edge, the closest she was ever to come to hanging ten. I took this picture that afternoon, but neither she nor I was prepared for the resulting mania over this photo.

While I have been approached many times for prints of "The Surfing Nun", I have never sold it for commercial purposes. Nevertheless, it has appeared on t-shirts and cards, on websites and Facebook pages.

I'd been surfing Nun's Beach since 1998 when we moved from Cape May up to Goshen, NJ. My step-son Ricky wanted to learn to surf so we bought him a used board and since I figured it'd be easier to watch him from the water than from the beach, that Spring, I bought a board myself. It was a 7'8" Challenger fun board from Kona and it cost me $350.

In the 10 years since, we've gotten to the know the 110 St. Surf Crew, a motley mix of aging surfers and their families.