The Cali Drought

The Cali Drought

“Hey man, how's it looking today?”

“Still flat. Man this blows.”

“What are we going to do?”

This was the conversation I had with my friends every morning at the pier going on two weeks straight. We were in a drought. The surf was washed out. We were washed out. Surfing was one of the things that kept us sane. Especially during the summer. My name's Johnny. I live in downtown Venice. So did my friends Tommy and Fynn. We hung out all day everyday. Went to school enough to pass, skated, surfed, and partied at night. We didn’t have jobs. We kept ourselves busy enough getting in and out of trouble. The problem was, one of the elements of our daily lives was being washed away. But the spring of 1975 would change our lives for good. 

I woke up the next morning to head down to the pier in hopes of a break. 

“Hey dad, I’ll see you later.”

“Woah woah don’t you have school?”

“Yeah, I'm going to school. I’m just riding down to see if there's any waves.”

“Alright John, but don’t lie to me. You gotta pass school kid. I mean what do you think you're going to do for a living if you flunk out?”

“I’m not worried about flunking out.”

I rode down to the pier and still nothing. I mean there was a small break but not enough. It wasn’t the same.

“So now what?” I said to Tommy?

“School?”

“Yeah alright. I was hoping you weren’t going to say it.”

Truth is, we didn’t really mind school. We just hated being cooped up all day listening to baloney that we really didn’t think we needed. The one good thing about it was I got to see everyone we normally wouldn’t see outside of school. We were often in detention. Just for dumb things like food fights, throwing paper airplanes, writing on the bathroom walls, skating in the halls was a big one. But we really weren’t stressed about it. 

“Alright boys it’s 2:00, you're free to go.”

We got out of school and headed to Joe's shack to get hotdogs and sodas. We weaved in and out of the slow traffic on our way. People would honk their horns as we whizzed by and tapped on their cars.

“Hey Ashley we'll just have hot dogs and sodas.”

“Alright coming up John. Jeez you guys must be hating life. These days huh? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the ocean like this.” 

“Yeah well I’m taking up reading so.”

“Yeah imagine that.”

“You wanna go to the movies tonight? Jaws came out and it’s supposed to be pretty wicked.”

“Yeah sure why not. You're gonna come by and pick me up on your skateboard?”

“Your funny, just meet me there.”

We ate our food then went fishing for a bit. Fishing was cool and all, but we could only do it for so long. 

“Hey man, you guys going to the movies tonight?”

“Na bro my moms been hounding me about my room and laundry.”

“Yeah yeah same here, but good luck with Ashley man.”

“Alright I’ll catch you guys tomorrow.”

I went home to get ready for the movies.

“You in for the night John?” my dad said

“Na dad I’m going to the movies with Ashley.”

“Alright alright but I mean come on man you gotta help out a little more. Would it kill you to do some laundry? And clean up your room? Not to mention you gotta have homework.”

“Dad I gotta go, the movie is starting soon.”

“Alright go have a good time, but you should start doing stuff around the house John. Alright?”

“Yeah yeah I got you.”

We went to the movies then went back to my house and hung out for the night. What a wild movie man. I thought about what I would do if I saw a shark when I was surfing. I imagined it chasing me as I’m riding a wave towards shore. Now that, would be something.

A few more days went by and not much changed. Then, we caught a break. The news was on and it was telling people to decrease water usage and to drain their pools. 

“Hey woah man did you see that?” Fynn said

“See what?” 

“That pool dude, drained out like that. Do any of you guys know who has a pool?”

“Not really man, wait. You guys remember that girl Diane from Santa Monica? I think she has a pool.”

“Well let's go.”

We borrowed my dad's car and drove to Diane's house in Santa Monica. 

“Looks like nobody's home.”

“Our lucky day.” 

We jumped the fence and went to the backyard. We still weren’t sure what Fynn was talking about. Fynn hopped in the drained pool.

“Check it out guys. This wave breaks everyday, all day.”

Then it clicked, we all jumped in the pool to check out Fynn's idea.

“Hey man this is pretty gnarly I don’t know.” Tom said

“Grow a pair would ya.”

Fynn dropped in and tried to go over the light in the pool and fell, we all did.

“We gotta hit it below the light.”

Then it started to flow. We all got it. Then Tom stepped it up and went over the light. So of course Fynn and I had to go over. It was the new spark we needed. 

“Man this is sick I could do this all day.”

“Hey man did you hear that? It sounded like a door.”

“HEY! What are you doing in my pool!?”

“Crap!”

“Haha. Try and catch us!”

Turns out they came home early. Guy came bursting out his back door with a bat. We jumped the fence in the back and ran through the field. We circled back around to get the car. 

“Wow dude that was close.”

“Yeah yeah I know man that was wicked! Let's do it again.”

We skated the pools for weeks straight. We would get up on the roofs to try and see where the next pool was. Then we started to gain a following. Some would skate with us, and other people would just hang out and watch. And we would have a look out on the roof if the cops came. We never got caught because the group was usually too big and they would just send like one cop. So we would just run away and hop to the next one. We got so caught up in it we forgot to check if there were waves. Until one day mother nature finally let loose and gave us the storm we had been waiting for. We got up the next morning and went down to the pier. The waves were firing once again. The drought had ended, the ocean was brought back to life and so were we. We would go on to be pro skaters and basically be on summer vacation for our career. Because we were doing what we loved. But that's a story for another time. That’s it. How we dealt with the drought of 1975.