Summer School

Although right-foot-forward surfers are liable to take offense at the insensitive suggestion that their surfboard stance is known as "goofy foot," it's a well-known fact that surfers are goofy. Why else would a presumably sane person hop on a board, paddle out to the deep end of the big pool, and then play footsie with Mother Nature? Summer School, a low-budget program, featuring a pair of surfer dudes sitting on couches reading cue cards, starts out more like Chinese water torture than water sports with a badly-edited interview with a laconic surfboard maker and a long (and dull) skit following a young surfer as he visits a surf shop. The program does pick up in the second half, however, with instruction for riding out and catching waves, with an emphasis on safety (as in start with slow rolling breaking waves, not the Big Kahuna). Still, the slack pacing and low-to-medium production values make this an optional purchase for larger collections. Aud: P. (R. Pitman)