#9. “Blue Crush” (2002)
To be clear, “Blue Crush” is not a good movie. If you look closely enough, you can distinctly make out a CGI head of Kate Bosworth on some other real surfer-lady body. “Blue Crush” is only good in that good-bad way, like Patrick Swayze movies are good-bad.
“Riding Giants” shows the true story of the North Shore of Oahu and of the surfing history of spectacularly beautiful Waimea Bay. But “Blue Crush” taught me something, too. Because of the scenes of Michelle Rodriguez cleaning out disgusting hotel rooms at the Turtle Bay resort, it taught me that I wouldn’t want to be caught dead in a hotel filled with drunken NFL players. That was the movie’s fiction, but it turns out to be more true than they intended.
Turtle Bay Resort is a private condo-and-hotel enclave surrounded by a golf course (and we already know what Betty thinks of those). The desire for hotel resorts to expand on the North Shore is intense, and has led to a rallying cry of “Keep the Country Country,” which I’ve seen everywhere from street signs to on T-shirts for sale in Muumuu Heaven.
According to this Surfer magazine article, North Shore locals successfully halted a mall development. But intentionally or (probably, definitely) not intentionally, “Blue Crush” helped me avoid a decision that I would have regretted as a mainlander: staying in a land-greedy resort.
Photos I took in 2006 on the North Shore of Oahu:
Love your story about Blue Crush and the North Shore. Stopping development out here is super important for everyone!
Mahalo,
Carol
Yeah, that movie was bad. And — sorry to admit this — I have stayed at the resort where the movie was filmed. It's the JW Marriott Ihilani Resort (was Turtle Bay the name in the movie?). I wouldn't have stayed there but we had a family connection and got a discount. Didn't do any golfing and didn't see any drunk NFL players, thankfully. I do agree with your post, though, and don't make a habit of staying at places like this.