So you want to be a surfer? You've imagined what it would be like to stand majestically, yes, soulfully, even, on that big, blue sparkling wave.

You'd ride that wave just like the best of 'em. You'd ride it right up to the beach and step gracefully onto the shore, where you'd be greeted by the bronzed surf gods and goddesses who await you--your peers, as it were.

North County offers wave riders some of the finest surf in California, and it does it year-round.

Although surfing is known as a summer sport (and, by the way, real surfers don't consider surfing a sport, but a lifestyle or spiritual experience), it is the months of September and October that provide the best conditions along the North County coast. The crowds thin, and huge south swells combine with still-warm water and Santa Ana winds to give surfers the waves they live for.

If you want to give surfing a try, you're not alone.

As we enter the '90s, surfing, spurred on by a billion-dollar-a-year fashion industry, has won a spot even in the conservative mainstream.

Once frowned upon as a subculture of beach bums and feckless adolescents, the world of surfing is now solidly entrenched in American popular culture. Long the metaphor for a free-and-easy California lifestyle, surfing seems to be benefiting from a nationwide obsession with health and exercise.

Just how do you gain entrance to that boldly colored world of sand, tans and Raybans? Assuming that you already have the requisite rad surfer wardrobe (and who doesn't, nowadays), you could begin by plunking down $350 for a killer board ($400 and up for a longboard) and, oh, $200 for a wet suit (basic black seems to be making a comeback).

When the ancient Hawaiian surfers wanted to ride the big ones, they would seek out a \o7 kahuna, \f7 or sorcerer, to bring the waves to them. Today in North County, you can seek out "Kahuna Bob" of Kahuna Bob's Surf School.

In Encinitas, the school is in its fifth year of operation--and the business is booming. "We try to get them started the right way," said 39-year-old "Kahuna Bob" Edwards. "We usually get them standing up the first day, and they have so much fun, they take four or five sessions. Once they meet with a little success, then they usually really go for it. I get a big kick out of it, too, just being able to be passing surfing on to people."

Kahuna Bob's is open year-round, but is busier during the summer, when the school operates seven days a week, giving semi-private lessons with no more than four pupils per instructor.