A portion of the boardwalk that was closed after being damaged during Hurricane Sandy is back open just in time for summer.
Jim Burke has been waiting for this day for years.
"I just rolled out of bed, hopped on my bike, just to test it, and out I'm so excited!" said Burke, who lives in Rockaway Park.
The Rockaway Beach Boardwalk is officially open from Beach 109th Street to Beach 115th Street.
"It's just great, it's good news for Rockaway, it's time, yay!" said another cyclist.
The section was closed up until this weekend due to damage after Hurricane Sandy.
Now, the boardwalk is continuous from Beach 9th Street up to Beach 117th Street.
"It's just another piece in the puzzle to make us as whole as we can from a catastrophe," said Noreen Ellis, who is the President of the Rockaway Civic Association.
"This is the most beautiful place on earth to me, and we're very happy to have access," said another beach-goer.
Lisa Long says it's great news for her business Rockapup. She depends on cyclists and pedestrians traveling along the boardwalk.
"Most of the foot traffic comes from the 90's, so when you know, people are hopping from concession to concession it's definitely helpful," Long said.
But there's still more work to be done. The Parks Department says the boardwalk from Beach 117th Street to Beach 126th Street is expected to be open sometime in July.
"We know it's an economic driver for the peninsula and it's, you know, for recreational activities it's very important, so we're trying very hard to get the entire boardwalk open," said Portia Dyrenforth, who is the Rockaway Administrator for NYC Parks.
The owner of Cuisine by Claudette says that can't come soon enough. She says until the entire boardwalk is open, sales will suffer.
"We losing, we all losing all around," said Claudette Flatow.
But Parks says there's light at the end of the tunnel.
The agency tell us 90% of the boardwalk is complete, and it's built to be more resilient than ever before.