The lidar equation for ocean at optical wavelengths including subsurface signals is revisited using the recent work of the radiative transfer and ocean color community for passive measurements. The previous form of the specular and subsurface echo term are corrected from their heritage, which originated from passive remote sensing of whitecaps, and is improved for more accurate use in future lidar research. A corrected expression for specular and subsurface lidar return is presented. The previous formalism does not correctly address angular dependency of specular lidar return and overestimates the subsurface term by a factor ranging from 89% to 194% for a nadir pointing lidar. Suggestions for future improvements to the lidar equation are also presented.