Down the coast with Dana Parsons

Finally, something to unify Orange County.

It’s not politics, where Republicans rule but Democrats and independents are gaining. It’s not ethnicity or the dozens of languages spoken in homes. Forget that we have churches, temples and mosques throughout the county, preaching different gospels.

What unites us is the water.

More specifically, the waves.

Come Oct. 5 at 6:45 a.m., the Catholic Diocese of Orange County will host the first-ever ecumenical “Blessing of the Waves” at the Huntington Beach Pier. The diocese says its goal is to “bring together surfers and ocean-minded people, regardless of their faith tradition, to show spiritual appreciation for the ocean resource and all that it gives the planet and its population.”

Southern California is home to many world-class surf breaks and most are in Orange County, the diocese notes. “Our beaches are more than simple geography,” Bishop Tod Brown of Orange County says in a prepared statement, “they are the cultural and spiritual center of our community.”

The event will feature surfing priests and include a ceremonial paddle-out and a prayer, which I’m guessing might sound something like this:

“Lord, On this especially bitchen’ morning which has left us stoked, we give thanks for the righteous waves and ask thy blessing on all the interfaith babes and dudes who ride them. If it is thy wish, grant each of them a killer ride and bestow upon them waves that are especially filthy and tubular. May they hang 10  on thy oceanic bounty and, if it be in accordance with thy gnarly plan, may they not wipe out. Knowing there is but one Big Kahuna, we ask these things in thy name, Amen.”