The storyline in this sequel (I confess to having missed BLUE CRUSH) concerns Dana, a young California surfer whose privileged life has nonetheless been marred by the premature death, years earlier, of Dana's South African surfer mom. Dana's dad, we find out in rather perfunctory and stilted fashion (but hey—something's got to propel us into the surfing, right?), has long left surfing values behind and has a very distant and authoritarian sugar-daddy relationship with his daughter. On something of a post-argument whim, Dana decides to ditch college-prep planning and head for Durban to retrace the steps of her mom's surfing journal.

Soon after arriving in South Africa, Dana finds that her beach locker has been plundered—leaving her without money, and without a treasured memento of her mom. She falls in with a beach-squatting surf gang that includes Pushy, a black gal who aspires to land a spot on the Roxy surf team; Tara, a bitchy (and really pushy) surfer who is a gatekeeper of sorts for the Roxy team; and Tim, a good-hearted surf bum you just know will turn out to be A Really Neat Guy. Though, of course, Dana is at first taken in by the far flashier Grant, who, like Dana, comes from a rather privileged background.