Then when class is over, Jim packs up swiftly and is out the door and gone before Tash even has time to stand. Too upset to talk about it? Now that is unusual.

Tash shakes his head as he leaves the concrete bunkers above the Arroyo Trabuco condos. Too bad. Well, maybe he’ll find out about it later, after Jim’s had a chance to calm down. Meanwhile he can’t worry about it; he’s got to get ready to go surfing.

Yes, it is just after ten P.M., and Tashi Nakamura is going to go home and eat and do a little carbrain repair, and then drive down to Newport Beach and go surfing. This is his latest innovation; after all, the waves are jammed with hordes of surfers by day, and so—think about it—if you want to avoid them, there’s no choice but to surf at night.

All his friends laughed themselves silly at this idea. It had the trademark Tashi characteristics, following a solution out to a logical but crazy end; Tashi, Jim said, just didn’t believe in reductio ad absurdum. And they laughed themselves sick. Ahhh, hahahaha.

But did they ever try it? No, people tend to judge new ideas without actually testing them, and so they remain on track all their lives, a part of the great machine. That’s fine with Tash, because among other things, it means he can have the nighttime waves all to himself.

The trick is to do it when there is a full moon, like tonight. So at 3:30 A.M. Tash parks in Newport Beach, walks down the dark, quiet street, surfboard under his arm. Curious how unanimously diurnal people are. Between the fashionable beachfront condos, with their walls of dark glass facing the sea. Onto the broad expanse of sand, milky in the moonlight, lifeguard stands looming on the bright surface like ritual statuary.

Stone groins extend into the water every four blocks; they’re there to help keep the trucked-in sand on the beach. Just off their sea ends waves break, faint white in the darkness. That’s another trick to night surfing: find a regular point break with a clear orienting marker. Each groin starts a left break when there’s a south swell, as there is tonight; and they’re easy to see. Perfect.