After nine days of buildup and anticipation, it was finally the last day of the Van’s US Open.  From over two hundred surfers, it was down to just the top sixteen.  The conditions were smaller than they’d been all week, but clean.  Fido the Surf Dog was out hanging ten on a long board.  Phil Collins’s I Can Feel It was blaring over the sound system.

5..4..3..2..1..

The contest was on.  They were starting with the semifinalists in the Women’s Challenger Series.  The pier was already packed to capacity.  It would be my last morning playing ukelele on the pier, at least for some time.  It was hard to say if I’d accomplished anything, outside of doing it just to do it.  Jiminy came up to me, squinting into the sun, a smile full of giant teeth, like Gary Busey in Big Wednesday.  The fact that it was the finals didn’t faze him much.  Any day that involves surfing is a good day to him.  His stoke will never fade away.

When I went down to the Gathering there were a lot of ghosts there, which was a little surprising considering how many people were around.  In the first few months of the pandemic, I’d met hundreds of them, kindred spirits I hadn’t even known existed before my seizure.  Some of the regulars I’d gotten to know a bit.  Every so often, a member of our old crew, the Gallows, would show up and we’d talk about how we needed to paddle out.  On this morning, I searched for Betsy.  There she was, with her blonde pigtails and faded sundress.  She smiled at me like there was a secret we were sharing.  It was too early to know if that were true or not, but I waved and smiled back.

During the finals, I sat on the grass by the plaza and watched the action on the big screen with Roy.  He started getting emotional about how much the Gathering had changed his life.  I had to agree.  Before stumbling across it, I hadn’t known a soul in Huntington Beach.  Now I ran into faces I recognized everywhere I went.   They might’ve been lost-souls, but they were souls nonetheless.

Three out of the four champions crowned that day were from Hawaii.  Hawaii was representing itself in the competition, waving its own flag.  Two Hawaiians captured the top spots in the Challenger Series.  Another won the women’s long board finals.  Only a guy from San Diego prevented the Hawaiians from completely sweeping the Open.  It was a great day for them.

Almost immediately after the contest was over, workmen began deconstructing Van’s Village and the big screen TV in the pier plaza.  The circus was moving on.