Heading West_13

Do It Again (Brian Wilson)

It's automatic when I
Talk with old friends
The conversation turns to
Girls we knew when their
Hair was soft and long and the
Beach was the place to go

Suntanned bodies and
Waves of sunshine the
California girls and a
Beautiful coastline
Warmed up weather
Let's get together and
Do it again

On Saturday, we got up early. Bob headed to Anaheim, and I walked myself down to Pacific Coast Highway. There wasn't much traffic, and I stuck out my thumb, and a guy on a chopped Harley pulled up.


"Going up to Huntington?"
"Sure, hop on..."

He had long dark hair, and I climbed on the back. He kicked down two metal rods to put my feet on. That took care of my feet from getting in the wheels. Next, what to hold on to. I had never been on a motorcycle, and put my arms around him. He turned and shouted: "Sit back, you don't have to hold on to me". I eased back, and there was a sissy bar in the small of my back.

He had no helmet, nor me, and I figured, oh well, trust the gods on this one. He just ripped into gear, and we were off on a 6 mile ride up the coast. This was totally unreal. It was deafening, It was breathless.

He dropped me off, and I walked out on the Huntington Beach pier. Surfers were on either side of the pier, it was about 4-5 foot swell. I walked around the beach area behind the pier, it was pretty run down, beach rental stores, biker bars. I waited a couple of hours, and then the shops started to open. These were enormous surf shops, holding hundreds of new boards.

I hit 4 or 5 shops, and they were intimidating.
The biggest place was this place called Jack's Surf Shop.

It was a scene in here, with a couple of guys really pushing for me to buy a "Hot stick". I really felt great about hanging with the guys back at the Russell Surf Shop after this experience.

At Russell's the guy working the counter, just said "Good Morning", and just let me take out boards, lay them on the floor and look at the shape and the rocker in them.

After about twenty minutes, he asked if I wanted to share some fish he was going to order for lunch. I did. What a laid back place that had been. This place was a zoo, and they were selling boards like they were used cars. "Check out this new black covered board, these are so hot!" Yea, right.