Watch this amazing video of Brian Wilson single his famous composition "Surf's Up."
It's one of the most hauntingly beautiful tunes I know. The first time I heard it I was speechless.
Interestingly, "Surf's Up" has nothing to do with surfing. It's a play on words referring to the Beach Boys shedding their surfing image. "Surfin' USA" was now "columnated ruins domino." (For the song's lyrics, go here.) They had left the innocent surfing days behind -- much to the chagrin of Mike Love, who wanted more surfing songs. No, said Brian Wilson. "Surf's up," he wrote, "aboard a tidal wave." The song reflects the blissful innocence of youth, the moment that it is lost, and the trial of what is yet to come.
For almost two decades, surfing was my life. All that changed when I left Hawaii for Biola College. I still surfed in California, but my days were now largely spent preparing for my career, for marriage, and for raising a family. Yet the child in me hasn't quite gone away.
I find it highly ironic that as we age and our bodies decline, the desire to surf only increases. Surfing offers devotees of the sport -- falsely -- tantalizing longevity. On the other hand, some have called surfing a "late-blossoming pastime." I've personally found that to be true. Even though I'm almost 73, I think I'm just now realizing how important surfing is to me and have begun to really appreciate it.
This doesn't mean I'll surf forever. I won't. But I don't worry much about that. I've decided that surfing gets better as you get older. I'll enjoy the sport as a gift from God as long as he enables me to do it.