When I was 12 to 14 years of age I became a surfer. This would be between 1960 and 1962 in Glendale, California. However, it wasn't until I was about 15 with a friend who had a 1951 Ford Convertible that we could take our 10 foot 2 to 10 foot 4 longboards to the ocean because Glendale is too far away otherwise. Before then I had to wait for my father to take me sometimes on weekends. But by age 15 (1963) I wore the lemon juiced (lighter colored hair of a sunbleached surfer and surfer bangs that looked sort of like JFK). I also wore the Levi Jeans, white socks and Tennis shoes, and white T-Shirt that were the outfit of a Los Angeles County California Surfer.And if it was cold I always had my Pendleton Wool Shirt that was a part of being a surfer then. Since then there were the Greasers (as in the movie Grease) and since these guys also were car clubbers(clubs who raced cars as street racers) I tended to be friends with both the surfers and the street racers even though I was a fairly good student in High School. So, through high school I mostly identified myself as a surfer. And slowly surfers started to wear their hair longer as was the style then.
I found an interesting a youtube video that typified the spiritual philosophy of surfing during the 1960s when I would say it was the most pure and idealistic. Surfing wasn't just something you did on weekends, it was also a religious and spiritual philosophy. And for many it still is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU7_Jg70syY&NR=1&feature=fvwp
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