Dear Mr. Ahrens,
Like you, I too am approaching Senior Citizenhood ( gulp!). Although I haven’t been surfing nearly as long as you ( I started in 1965 in Playa del Rey at Ballona Creek) I have a tendency to dream of "the good old days" of surfing. Call it nostalgia. But I like the version of nostalgia that reminds one of the magic of the "good old days".
There’s an expression I heard recently : " Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be."
Personally, I like my nostalgia to be uplifting.
Since you have a platform for your views and actually get your thoughts published, allow me to be so impertinent as to make a few suggestions to you as a purveyor of nostalgia.
Avoid negativity. I want my nostalgia to be free of the sour subjectivity that some writers tend to inject into their version of nostalgia. I want to be reminded of the happy, dreamy, magical times of my early days of surfing. We all know that things have changed. That’s a given, a no-brainer. No need to dwell on what’s a bummer about things these days. People aren’t dumb and can make the inferences for themselves.

You’re a valuable asset to surf history with all of your priceless memories.
It’s always good to have historians and writers who can capture a moment lost in time.
Let the "magic" of that era do the talking. Allow it to come through unencumbered by one’s own filter ( or ego or bad mood).
History is indeed important, and the best historians step aside and somehow let the history do the talking, keeping their own point-of-view at bay.
Minimize the subjectivity. Try to edit the "I Me Mine" references.
Thanks for your love of surfing and your memories. We need surf historians like you.
Sincerely, Mike Connor
Culver City, Ca.