Turtle just don’t give a shit. Image: Screenshot
Flashdance, E.T., Die Hard, Terminator and other 1980s celluloid gems have nothing on North Shore. Let’s face it, an Arizona wave pool surfer taking on the Pipe Masters is just as unreal and magical as a buff cyborg cruising the time-space continuum to hunt down Sarah Conner.
The iconic film is that of a hero’s journey as Rick Kane confronts and learns what really matters in life via the narrative of surfing. It’s vintage eighties cheese, and surfers globally have memorized all the most biting lines. Played by surfer/actor John Philbin, Turtle’s words are some of the most enduring in the pop culture confluence of Hollywood and surfing. “When the wave breaks here, don’t be there!”
Despite roles in Return of the Living Dead, Children of the Corn and Tombstone, it’s Philbin’s role in North Shore that he is most well known for. The film wasn’t Philbin’s only surf-themed movie though. He also played a bank robber in Point Break, the sport’s other cult celluloid treasure. Cast as Nathanial, the Jimmy Carter mask-wearing bandit, his character takes a bullet from a pissed off Gary Busey in the final clutches of the film.
Thirty years later, Philbin (who is also a stylish goofy-foot) runs the Pro Surfing Instruction surf school and is still busy acting. He will be soon starring in his first lead role in 15 years in the upcoming Undateable John with Tom Arnold and Daryl Hannah and has parts in three other new releases.
To better understand the gravity of what the North Shore means to surfing, I recently tracked down John in Indonesia. We tossed questions back and forth across the global divide to find out how a film about a wave pool surfer spawned some of the most memorable Hollywood surf dialogue ever.
What were your thoughts when you first got that part as Turtle?
When I first got the audition I felt I was born to play the part. I had never before or since wanted a part more in any other project. But I couldn’t convince the director of that. I auditioned seven times. He didn’t see it. I was fat and dark-haired and hadn’t surfed in years and was playing a cowboy or a bank robber but I kept begging to go in again and again until the producer Randal Kleiser said, “Just give it to him. He’s a method actor. He’ll transform into the character.”
So when I heard that I got the part of Turtle, I was pumped but I knew I had a lot of work to do. Mainly I was so excited to be in a movie about my favorite place to surf, Pipeline, with my all-time hero Gerry Lopez. I didn’t want to embarrass myself to the surfing world.
The movie was not well received when it came out in theaters. It’s big and colorful and corny and used a lot of local actors and surfers who weren’t actors in it. I had the time of my life filming North Shore and made lifetime friends in the process. I was just moving on with my career and not too invested in the box office results. But it wasn’t a big hit.
At what moment did you realize the movie had become a cult classic?
With the invention of VHS, North Shore was given a new life. Fans could now watch and rewatch a movie that spoke to them in specific ways. Ten years after we made it, I was invited to a screening at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles to introduce the film and when I arrived there was a line around the block full of happy, enthusiastic surf families. That night, speaking to a full arthouse, I felt a love for the film I hadn’t known existed. Since then the movie has grown into a cult classic that everyone involved in the making of can be proud and grateful for having participated in.
What parts of your life and philosophy overlap with Turtle’s?
Turtle is way cooler than I am. He’s a craftsman. He makes his own boards, and carves out his life in a respectful way. He shows kindness to strangers in need. If I’m ever in a selfish mode, feeling sorry for myself or negative about some aspect of life, I can think that I should go help someone in need or be really nice to a stranger. It gets me out of my own head and into being and doing something positive for the world and the people in it. Matt Adler (who played protagonist Rick Kane) and I are best friends to this day because of that movie.
Do you think with the current wave pool boom that the North Shore narrative could actually happen? Do you think we’ll someday see a champion trained in freshwater pools?
I am loving the wave pool universe. Riding waves of any kind, created anyway, is pure joy. It feels like magic. It used to be unique to the ocean and connected to weather patterns, but with our scientific minds trained on wave creation, we are able to create new ways of riding energy, and that’s fantastic.
Nothing can replace the experience of learning how to recognize, catch, and ride waves in the ocean, but kids from all over the world will someday be able to feel the pure joy of riding waves. Some exceptional athletes will emerge and dominate particular waves with gymnastic flare and repeated practice in our lifetime. But Hollywood doesn’t do reality. It does fantasy, myth-type escapist entertainment, and North Shore is a formula film of a young man’s hero journey to another world.
Editor’s Note: This story was originally published and contributed by WavePool Mag
