Valerie Gillies

You want to be there to catch the wave
living breathing surf till it sounds in your dreams

You want to get where it peaks, energy beneath the board
rolls in the line-up of breakers and just keeps going

You want to be on the wave face at the plummeting lip
if you fall off a big one you’re going to get eaten up

aaayyye... see ya out there, aye

you know it’s going to be good with an offshore wind
perfect waves peeling all the way along the reef

you feel the force of everything that made that wave
the winds across the sea and the pulse of storms

you’re in there timing sets of three, assessing rips
pulling into a barrel, that’s where the power is

aaayyye... always thinkin’, always lookin’

to be inside a wave, there’s nothing like it
to get that deep, not getting touched at all

the foam is chasing you along as it breaks behind
you ride it to the end, then you go and get another one

to be there when wind, tide, swell all happen at once
as the first seas and oceans beat inside you