I have surfed my whole life and I took my 13 yr old to see this movie. Bethany is a tremendous person, great role model. Her whole family seems to be quite an inspiration. She has turned pro and is riding giants at Jaws as a tow-in. She can out paddle and out surf most grown men, including me. This is a two tissue movie.......
My only complaints are technical, like saying they are surfing a contest at Sunset when they are really surfing in Makaha. The last wave of the contest is a huge left barrel that doesn’t happen at the break they were surfing, etc...
Most people will not notice these technical issues unless you have surfed in HI.
The technical issues were explained in the DVD extras. Some of the surfing scenes were filmed at several locations and spliced together so as appear as one location. That sort of film editing is as old as film itself. We don’t surf, but we do frequent hawaii, and noticed the location changes as well. Did not bother us a bit though - it just made us feel like we were Islanders, because we noticed when most didn’t. It was interesting how they made the actresses arm not show up on film. There is nothing they cant do with movie FX these days