Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Surfing as character development

Pet peeve warning:

I hate it when a television show has characters who are supposed to be surfers. I don't mind if they throw it in as dialogue or whatever, but when they actually set a scene in the water and the actors look like they've been air-lifted onto the board and balanced there, it's really distracting.

Last night, I was watching Veronica Mars (which is a really great show, don't laugh!) and the brooding bad-ass rich kid Logan seemed a lot less brooding and whole lot less bad-ass when he was chatting with his friend while floating in the water in a shiny new wetsuit on a cheap-looking longboard. They were both sitting in the middle of the board so it was flat on the water. They looked like they would tip over if they had to try to raise the nose of the board out of the water to turn around should it occur to them to paddle for a wave.

It's like when you watch people who don't know how to play guitar, play guitar in the movies... takes you right out of the scene.

Good surfing scene on TV? Simon Baker in the premiere of "Smith" (which is cancelled, but that setting was GREAT). Baker, tanned, in boardshorts, cutting up a wave on a shortboard. (It helps that he can actually surf.) He trots to shore smiling and full of aloha spirit. He greets a couple hard-edge locals who give him a hard time. He backs off, but then kills them with single shots to the head from his sniper rifle. Every surfer's fantasy for dealing with aggro meat-heads.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw that too. I was trying to figure out where they were "surfing." San Diego? Oceanside?

gracefullee said...

I thought maybe it was by the pier at Manhattan or Redondo because in one shot, it looked like the PV hills south of where they were floating.

I also don't think it's as far south as SD or Oceanside because I'm pretty sure they're a local shoot and there might be some kind of rule that they have to stay within LA county.

What I REALLY want to know was where was Simon Baker surfing? Looked like Hawaii but there was NO ONE on those waves!!!

J.P. said...

Would rather hit Veronica Mars or Veronica Kay?

hee hee

Anonymous said...

Ha! I agree on all points made! Well, except for V M, I haven't seen it.. ;-)

Anonymous said...

damn, I never thought of firing a few rounds into the line-up to thin the herd...

gracefullee said...

JP - Depends on if you're using "hit" as in the crude slang (ie. "hit that" to have sex with) or in the traditional meaning "to pummel"). If the traditional meaning, then VK. If the slang meaning and I were a lesbian, then the answer would be Veronica Mars, totally.

Alan - you're missing out on some nifty dialogue and tight noir references! Get the DVDs!

Clayfin - there used to be an online flash game where you could shoot surfers as they were surfing. I tried to google it, but I can't find it anymore. It's a shame, because target practice could come in handy.