When I was young in California
The coolest kids, ones I admired most
Skipped school and rode the waves
They got their boards and drove up the coast
All that mattered was to get to Malibu
They wanted to see what they could do
With the longest crests at the highest tides
Chasing the ocean curls
Far more important than the girls
It was more, I think, than a wild ride
Early in the morning or at dusk
They were waiting for an “endless” one
A rolling wall they could dance across
Until they reached the sun
I think of them now and again
When I read how we too are riding the waves
How we’ve been swept up,
How we’re surfing fools
How we’re utterly unschooled
For surely as night follows day
Another’s coming our way
It was almost spiritual how those guys
Crazy in every way but in this they were wise
And were seeking out the perfect one
That God had made for them alone
Then they’d return to class, they said
And do the boring old work we all did
And it’d be the same yet different
In a way they couldn’t describe
Of course for that to happen
They had to survive.
Now lost, now gone under, now back
And barely discernible, little specks riding the foam
There they are like us riding together
And like us today also riding alone.