Cruise to the Beach, 21st Century Style

Thanks to events like TOCNYS’ recent Cruise to the Beach, the term “Sunday drivers” is taking on a whole new meaning. Contrary to the inexperienced, slow drivers of yesteryear, on Sunday, August 18 on Long Island over 25 people in over a dozen Tesla vehicles, some of which were driving themselves, made a caravan truly fit for the 21st century.

Assembling at the Valley Stream, NY Tesla Supercharger starting around 8:30 AM, the cars had a chance to swap stories and take pictures as they let their cars top up their batteries. There was even a demonstration of the latest version of Enhanced Summons, where one’s car drives itself (with nobody in the car, mind you) from its parking spot over to its waiting owner - like an invisible valet service.

At 9:30 AM the caravan officially commenced on Sunrise Highway to the Richard L. Brooks Memorial Park, about a 45-minute drive to the southeast. A general strategy was employed in attempt to “manage” the ¼ mile long caravan: "I and my co-pilot Warren were in the first car, while the last car in line would notify me if anyone got stuck at a traffic, in which case we, the front-runners, would pull off to the side. Which worked out well."

Not wanting to pass up any photo ops, there was a brief stop at the Jones Beach water tower to get some videos, stills, and drone shots of the caravan.

Eventually everyone arrived at the Richard L. Brooks Memorial Park. This "park" is actually a large parking lot informally known to locals as OBI East, where car enthusiasts gather every Sunday to show off their rides against a beautiful ocean backdrop.

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Did you know? OBI East takes its name from the old Oak Beach Inn East, one of four enormously popular (and controversial) nightclubs that lasted from the 1969 to the late 90’s.

Source: Wikipedia

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Lastly, the event was concluded by the a few remaining TOCNYS members heading to a local Captree State Park Tiki bar for a meal.

Event organizer Keith S. summed everything up very well: "It was a fun day and cruise that must, I repeat, must be done again. Everyone responded well and loved the event entirely."

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The Cruise to the Beach event also represented a milestone for TOCNYS as it was the first club event on Long Island, which is the NYS region with the highest amount of Tesla ownership (~3,500). Though club membership on the Island is still a relatively small percent of that number (1.7%, 60 members), both membership and activity is on the rise.

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Thanks to the following members for their effort in making the event possible:

• Keith S. the visionary for Cruise to the Beach and on-the-ground MC during the event
  
• Warren & Kamal S. expert caravan management team
  
• Stephanie D. who, unfortunately couldn’t be in attendance, helped coordinate the event with TOCNYS HQ & handled emails

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