'Crush' on You

Image credit: Blue Crush: © Universal Studios

All About

Blue Crush

Get the latest photos, news, and more

Lena (played by Sanoe Lake) Real-life Oahu surfer Lake makes her film debut as Lena, Anne Marie's sweet-tempered and supportive friend. And unlike Bosworth and Rodriquez, Lake didn't need a double for the most challenging surfing scenes (the other two's faces were digitally placed on the heads of real female surfers).

Leslie (played by Faizon Love) Leslie, a hulking, pro-football player friend of Anne Marie's love interest, Matt, gets the biggest laughs in ''Blue Crush,'' in part by packing his 300-pound-plus frame into a Speedo and then (barely) managing to balance his bulk on a surfboard.

Matt (played by Matthew Davis) Davis, who was Reese Witherspoon's shallow boyfriend in ''Legally Blonde,'' is more sympathetic here as a hunky but mysteriously underweight NFL player who approaches Anne Marie for surfing lessons. A Cinderella-style love affair follows (she returns with him to the hotel she cleaned -- this time as a pampered guest). But does Anne Marie abandon her surfing dreams for the affair? Take a guess.

''Near-drowning incident'' We hear this term repeatedly as Anne Marie recalls that her career was nearly derailed after she hit her head on the ocean floor and almost drowned. She suffers flashbacks to the incident, which Townend says is true to life: ''I've hit my head on the bottom and was in the hospital for a couple of days: It doesn't get any worse than that.''

Penny (played by Mika Boorem) Since her mom skipped town long ago, Anne Marie is in charge of her teenage sister, Penny, whose ''you're not my mother'' rebelliousness seems to have been shipped in from a never-aired WB series.

Pipe Masters The competition that Anne Marie enters is a fictionalized version of the Pipeline Masters, an elite pro-surfing contest on the North Shore. The real Pipeline Masters, however, is a men-only event, says Townend: ''They used some poetic license.'' Women do compete on similarly fearsome waves in a contest held in Teahupo'o, Haiti -- but maybe the movie's makers found that too hard to pronounce.

''Triple overhead'' A wave that is three times taller than the surfer, which is common in the fearsome waters of the North Shore.

Underwater training We see Anne Marie running underwater, holding her breath while carrying a rock and dragging her friends on a rope. This isn't a form of torture invented for the movie; it's actually a well-regarded training technique that both helps lung capacity and has psychological benefits. ''It teaches you composure underwater,'' says George. Just what we all need.