A RETURN TO THE SURF

While growing up in Watsonville, and particularly during my high school years in the early 60's, a summer day at the beach was as normal as it got. Before the drivers license, we used to ride our bicycles the 3 or 4 miles out to what is now Pajaro Dunes, but back then before the million dollar homes, it was just the beach. Later, when my friends and I started driving, we ventured farther north toward the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk, and spent many a day at the multitude of beaches between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. One of those beaches was Manressa State Beach, pictured above. One of my earliest attempts on a surfboard was at this very beach, and the results were not very pretty. The waves at this beach were more suited for body surfing or body boards. The best waves were farther north toward Santa Cruz, and as my buddies and I got more proficient, we gravitated to the areas that had larger and longer waves. This was the era of the Beach Boys music, and the beach was the happening place for our younger generation.
When cars and girls began to be the focus of our attentions, cruising the Boardwalk was the place to see and be seen. I'll never forget the night that my best friend got one of the very first 64 G.T.O.'s, and he and I had more fun showing off his car, and at the time, it's incredible power.
As they say, those were the good ole days that were so perfectly captured in the movie "American Graffiti" with Ron Howard and his 1958 Chevy Impala. My first car was also a 58 Impala, and while I cruised around the Santa Cruz area yesterday on my Harley, I couldn't help but reflect on lots of great high school memories that were generated at, or close to the beach.