Australian
Screen

Clip description

A secret surfing competition has been set up between Anna (Mara Scherzinger) and Joe (Matt Rudduck) to determine which of them gets the coveted seventh spot in the Solar Blue Surf Academy. Joe has chosen The Gallows, a treacherous surfing break which he knows well. Bec (Kate Bell) tries to give the newcomer some tips on how to surf the break but everyone is worried for Anna’s safety including leaders Deb (Nadine Garner) and Simo (Martin Lynes). They arrive too late to stop it happening. Against the odds, Anna wins, to the delight of the others. Even Bec admires her style.

Curator’s notes

This clip encapsulates the dramatic resolution of this episode’s story. It also shows off the scenery and the beautiful surf beaches that star in this series.

The regular surfing sequence found in each episode is also featured, highlighting the skills of the stand-in surfers (in this scene Melanie Redman-Carr and Daniel Asmus) and the technical expertise required to create a relatively seamless and believable surfing sequence cutting between the actors and their action doubles. Most of the young actors hadn’t surfed before and were literally thrown into the ‘deep end’ after a two week intensive training program. While doubles were used for all of the skilled surfing scenes, each actor also spent a lot of time in the water and on surfboards for the all-important headshots used to link the actor with the distance action shots.

The late and ineffectual arrival of the two ‘adults’ Simo and Deb is also part of the fun of the underlying premise of this series. Building on the successful historical model of stories featuring a small tight-knit group of independent kids and their adventures, pioneered by Enid Blyton and recently built to a crescendo by JK Rowling with Harry Potter, the Blue Water High kids also live independently and have adventures and solve their own problems in an idyllic and beautiful place. Adults are very much in the background.