SUMMER

Rebellious, fearless, wild, Summer is a force of nature. She does what she wants, when she wants and woe betide anyone who tries to stop her. Her attitude to life is to have as much fun as she can, push boundaries and live on the edge. She’s easily distracted and easily bored, which means school has never been a good fit. Having said that, she’s smart as hell and athletically gifted but just hasn’t found anything to keep her attention for long. Skating has been the one thing she’s kept up, and cruising around Brooklyn with her crew has been her preferred way of blowing off steam.

ARI

Thoughtful and introspective, Ari has always been a good kid. A sweet kid. Someone who always thought a lot about right and wrong, about how to act. He has a tendency to overthink things, to worry about things. He’s not a big fan of surprises and works hard to be as prepared as possible, whether for an exam or a surf competition.

POPPY

Chatty, funny, outgoing, with two surfing-obsessed older brothers, Poppy has always been a bit of a tomboy – strong, athletic, and pretends not to care how she looks. She knows how talented she is on a surfboard – even better than her brothers – and has always been fiercely competitive.

MARLON

On the surface, Marlon is easy-going, confident and fun-loving. He never takes anything too seriously and has a wisecrack for every situation, though sometimes this is his way of covering disappointment. He fell in love with surfing when he moved to Australia from Brazil at the age of ten and on competition day can often be seen kicking back, strumming his ukulele and cracking jokes. Out in the water he’s a showman, talented and flashy. But under the surface there’s a strong competitive streak and when things don’t go his way he tends to blame anyone and anything but himself.

BODHI

Empathetic, generous, a little bit spiritual, Bodhi is the calming centre of her often loud and boisterous group of friends. She’s thoughtful, an introvert, with a goofy sense of humour that sneaks up on you. And from day one, she’s always been a water baby, drawn to the ocean. Whenever she’s feeling low, she gets on her board or puts on goggles and flippers and explores the world under the surface.

THE SHOREHAVEN CREW

Surviving Summer follows a group of five young surfers navigating the crucial and challenging steps of building a career as a professional surfer: making measured and mature decisions about the likes of commercial sponsorship, managing a public profile, contesting high-intensity competitions, and recovering from serious injury; all while trying to juggling the challenges of growing up and being a teenager.

WREN

Wren’s high-achieving and highly strung, and already a champion surfer. She made a name for herself as the captain of the Queensland team, and went on to win the Nationals for them three years in a row. But Wren’s competitive attitude, and her pushy older sister coach, get them kicked out of the Queensland team. She’s forced to start completely from scratch in Shorehaven.

In Shorehaven, Wren finds Ari – a beautiful, committed, talented surfer who she sees as the perfect match for her. Wren also finds Ari easy to mould, and she successfully crafts a power couple image for both of them that makes them inseparable and, at first, only attracts more success.

And then along comes Summer, Ari’s ex and the one that got away. Wren can see Summer getting under Ari’s skin as soon as she arrives – and when Summer lands a spot on the team, and shows real promise as a competitive surfer, it threatens everything Wren’s worked hard to build.

Wren’s good at hiding behind a sweet mask, but she’s ruthless in her taking down of anyone she feels threatened by. It’s not until she turns the entire surf team against her that Summer realises how dangerous she is – and by then, it might be too late.

Baxter

Baxter’s proud of his legendary rebel status and goes out of his way to maintain his image as a lone wolf. He’s cocky, confident and comfortable with the ladies, and even being relegated to Shorehaven after he set fire to a rival team’s banner in last year’s Nationals won’t dull his shine. He’s immediately attracted to firecracker Summer and promptly sets about convincing her to feel the same way about him.

But behind his carefully curated image, Baxter is anything but a lone wolf. He knows how emotionally volatile his sisters are, and feels indebted to them for what they gave up to come to Victoria. Baxter is made to believe it was entirely his fault that the three of them had to leave Team Queensland and this guilt hangs heavy on him, right up to the moment when he learns it’s not true.

But during his time in Team Vic, and with Summer, he starts to see Wren and Elo for who they really are, and gets more and more uncomfortable being part of their manipulative games. Baxter’s about honesty, communication and keeping things simple. Only now, being open and honest about what he’s done for his sisters might cost him Summer’s trust. And the more time he spends with her, the less he can bear to part with that…

Elo

Elo, Wren and Baxter’s older sister and Team Vic’s new surf coach, believes she can forge winners. But it takes real fire.

Elo coached the Queensland surf team to victory three years running before she was unceremoniously dumped and had to drag her siblings down to Victoria. Elo blamed the move on her younger brother’s delinquent tendencies but the truth is, Elo was kicked from the team for using questionable coaching strategies and encouraging bullying.

Elo is knowledgeable, charming and confident, and when she shines her light on you, it makes you desperate to earn that approval again. But she’s so concerned with winning, she prioritises it over team bonding – and believes that pitting surfers against each other is the best way to make them hungry to win.

As the Team Vic coach, Elo impresses quickly – but she also recognizes already-existing rivalries, pushes conflicts to breaking point and transforms our loyal friendship group into a lean, mean fighting machine, with none of the support and trust they had before. What Elo wants is to beat Team QLD, and prove they were wrong to dump her. And she will stop at nothing to get what she wants.