Surfing Show Rides Wave of Popularity

Here in Surf City, where the beach is the virtual centerpiece of life, there exists an almost boundless public appetite for anything and everything related to waves and those who ride them.

Yet historically, the 40,000-odd surfers in San Diego County aching for information and entertainment related to their sport have had to content themselves with a few magazines, occasional reruns of surf films at tiny movie houses and conversation with their beach-going buddies.

And that, Carlsbad surfer Mike Sarain said, is about as exciting as surfing a duck pond.

“You can only see those surf movies and reread the magazines so many times,” said Sarain, 24. “My friends and I always wished we could just turn on the TV and see surfing.”

That desire has blossomed into “Wavelength,” a 30-minute surfing show produced by Sarain that airs twice a month on four San Diego County cable systems.

The public access program, which reaches more than 150,000 viewers, uses a news magazine format to blend surfing footage, interviews with legendary surfers, features on unusual surf products, bulletins about the sport’s top competitors and coastal issues.

Despite its brief eight-show history, “Wavelength” has become one of the most popular programs in the cable companies’ public-access lineup, officials with the firms reported.

“We don’t have a ratings system or anything, but we very definitely get more calls and other response to ‘Wavelength’ than to our other programs,” said Edward Keyes, community access manager at Southwestern Cable TV. “Mike Sarain seems to have found a loyal and responsive audience.”

Spokesmen at Daniels Cablevision in Carlsbad and Times Mirror Cable Television in Escondido gave similar assessments. Del Mar Cablevision will begin carrying the show later this month, and officials at San Diego’s Cox Cable and several Orange County companies have expressed interest as well, Sarain said.

Although the program’s primary goal is to quench local surfers’ thirst for footage and information on their beloved sport, Sarain has a related and almost equally important mission: To abolish the image of surfers as shaggy, water-logged “dudes” who cling to words like “gnarly,” “rad” and “tubular.”

That’s why Sarain, a San Diego native who surfed competitively and once contemplated a shot at the pro circuit, is now “a television producer first and a surfer second.” He strives to make “Wavelength” a professional and technically slick show, using a wide range of special effects and props as well as a snazzy studio set.

“We try very hard not to produce a hokey show that looks like the kind of show a stereotypical surfer might do,” said Sarain, who shoots all the local footage himself. “We don’t say, ‘Hey, wow man,’ and we don’t go barefoot or use folding beach chairs. We use big words and proper syntax. We’re trying to break down this untrue image of surfers as ignorant guys who litter.”

Hosted by fellow surfer Dan Roper, “Wavelength” opens with a three-minute surfing clip accompanied by background music, usually jazz or progressive rock. Nearly all the footage is of local surfers at local beaches because Sarain believes that “people like to turn on the TV and see their friends or see what the swells were like at their favorite spot.”

Next comes a “special-interest” segment on topics related to surfing, such as surf photography, surfboard shaping or artificial wave machines. After another three-minute surfing clip, Roper conducts a brief studio interview with a local pro surfer or a “surf legend,” who is asked to discuss his career, his interests or trends in surfing.

A quick feature on a sport other than surfing but likely to be of interest to surfers--skateboarding, skim boarding, beach volleyball--follows, and the show concludes with a 90-second news segment, generally headlines on who’s winning what contest in which part of the world, environmental issues and the like.

So far, the show has gotten high marks from cable company officials and surfers alike. Keyes of Southwestern Cable, which was the first to broadcast the program in January, called “Wavelength” well-choreographed, tightly edited and well-suited for “the surf capital of the world.”

As for the program’s intended consumers, Phil Treibel, who manages a Carlsbad surf shop, said, “I think a lot of surfers like it because it’s mostly California and they get to see waves that they surf all the time and see how other surfers can do on them. In movies you usually only see Hawaii.”

Kirk Gibbons, a competitive surfer in Encinitas, said, “I’ve watched ‘Wavelength.’ It’s fun, and it’s great to see a show on surfing reach the masses through TV.”

A former surf shop manager who once “lived to surf,” Sarain decided on a career in television production after a junior high school course on the craft. A cousin who is a free-lance producer in Los Angeles encouraged Sarain and provided him with some early hands-on experience.

After a brief detour--”I became a ski bum at Mammoth and then went to Hawaii and surfed for awhile”--Sarain decided it was time he made his debut in the video world. He soon found that it wasn’t easy.

“It seems like everyone is trying to get into video these days, and unless you’ve got something special, it’s very tough to do,” Sarain said. “Luckily, surfing became my vehicle and it’s worked.”

In 1982, he took a free television production workshop at Southwestern’s studio. Soon, he was assisting on public access shows, and before long was directing music videos and a news magazine show called “Health Today.”

Then last summer, Sarain and a friend won Southwestern’s approval to give the surf show a try. They began collecting footage and plotting the format, and had the first show ready to air by December. “Wavelength” seemed like an appropriate name because it “combined the feeling of waves, an electrical pulse and the local ‘We’re on your wavelength’ approach we’re after,” Sarain said.

While delighted with the apparent popularity of “Wavelength,” Sarain is eager to break away from public access TV and into a bigger market--one that might enable him to make a living from just television work.

Currently, Sarain supports himself by waiting tables at an Oceanside restaurant, and maintains his video project through grants and the sponsorship of two North County surf shops.

“Because it’s public access, we’re not allowed to make money, but we can get support from sponsors by giving them a PBS-style plug on the show,” he said. “The support compensates us for our tape, fees for equipment and time. In the end, I do a little better than break even.”

Among Sarain’s plans for the future is a proposal that Surfer magazine join him to produce an expanded edition of “Wavelength” for commercial television in San Diego and eventually throughout Southern California.

Ultimately, Sarain would like to reorient the show, creating a more generic beach program that might sell in coastal communities throughout the country.

“You can bet that in the dead of winter, guys in New Jersey would just eat up a program showing surfing and sunny California days,” Sarain said. “But at this point, no one’s deluding themselves into thinking that ‘Wavelength’ is a nationally syndicated show. It’s just fun and a good way for me to break into video.”