Alas, the film is pretty bad on almost every level, from the appallingly trite script to the extremely badly edited surfing action sequences. You can see every join between actor and stunt surfer, and Stockwell shoots each surfing scene from every conceivable angle, many of which look very cool, although when edited so harshly they fail to let you see what's going on in any meaningful way. The actors are very nearly edited out of the film as well; their characters are undemanding cardboard cutouts--illogical and impenetrable--so there's not much even a good actor like Rodriguez can do with it. Some of the plot elements are just ridiculous, most notably the entire final competition sequence. But at least everyone looks great in his or her designer swimwear! And the Hawaiian beaches and waves are pretty spectacular. You just wish it had been more competently filmed, because then at least the surfing would distract you from the derivative, banal storyline.