The ocean guerrillas lay in wait,
Dead in the water, to ambush playmate
Breakers and join the aquamarine fun,
Spotlighted by a warm Hawaiian sun;

Biding their time, washed bobbing in crests,
Seeking sea monsters assessed as the best
For engine-less power; hugging their crafts,
Ankle lines linked to their oval rafts.

Bronze captains suddenly launch multiple trips
In a flotilla of slim trim ships,
Vaulting atop their colorful boards,
Transformed to King-of-the-Forecastle lords.

Peeling off hips of tall water walls,
Skidding under wave-roofs, averting falls
Into the sucking grasp of tides
Eager to douse their switchback rides.

A daredevil vanishes into a surge
Crowned by a screen of spray to emerge,
Only to skim green cliffs and again thread
Under a half-circle arm of doom overhead.

For spellbound landlubbers the water ballet
Terminates in a hollow finale:
The sea-dancing sailors jump ship in wallows
A scant fathom above sharp coral in shallows.