He uses his winnings from a wave tank surfing contest in his native state of Arizona to fly to Hawaii for the summer before the start of college, in order to try to become a professional surfer.

The film's antagonist is Lance Burkhart (Laird Hamilton), a famous, top-ranked surfer whose competitive and materialistic values ("Give me a Board that works.

The film climaxes with a surf contest on the Banzai Pipeline as Rick ends up competing against Lance in a duel of skills and beliefs.

This is a misnomer as NY is on the Atlantic Ocean and Soul Surfers from Rockaway (See Chris Wresch; Joe Cohen) have roamed the beaches for decades.

North Shore features professional surfers Shaun Tomson, Gerry Lopez ("Vince"), Laird Hamilton ("Lance Burkhart"), Mark Occhilupo, Robbie Page ("Alex Rogers"), Mark Foo, Derek Ho, Hans Hedemann, Ken Bradshaw, Christian Fletcher, Lord James Blears and several others.

Bill was handmaking custom, high-performance surfboards for the Oahu North Shore big wave riders of the era, similar to the character Chandler in the film.