I love the beach. I live 10 minutes biking from Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, and getting there and biking on the boardwalk in the morning is my cardio exercise, together with a stop sunbathing by the sea and a dip in the ocean when it's sunny and beautiful.
In 15 minutes by car I go to Riis Beach, which it's of course nicer than Brighton Beach.
First of all, even if one section is definitely 90% gay, Riis beach is NOT a nude beach. You can see some G-strings, you can see topless women, but no nude. You can actually be fined and arrested if you sunbathe nude there, it has happened!
When the weather calls for it, I usually arrive there by 8:30/9 am, and I LOVE it. Veeeery few people. During the week by Noon it becomes busy but still bearable for my lonely taste. On week ends, usually max by noon I leave because it starts to be packed. And I am allergic to loud music and loud people on a beach (and anywhere else...).
The big building behind the beach it's indeed derelict and abandoned now. It used to be a hospital for young TBC patients until the 1950s, then a old age nursing home until 1998.
As far as I know, Sandy Hook's Gunnison Beach (NJ) is the only official nude beach around NYC, of course with its own gay section.
@queensboroboy and @RealAvalon