Medina Mason grew up knowing that she was not like everyone else. She knew from the beginning that she was not pretty or popular, as her brother was, but still felt the pressure from her peers and even her family to fit in and conform to all the unrealistic standards that are set for the children of Palos Verdes. Medina in a socially awkward girl, trapped in a superficial town. She uses surfing to escape her dysfunctional life and problematic family. While her brother’s life begins to be consumed by drugs, Medina finds solace in the waves, finding a different way to deal with her stress from her brother and the rest of her family. When she is surfing, everything wrong in her world disappears.
“She’s kind of like the tide, a puppet on a string being pulled towards waves, away from family.” (Julia Crucil)
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After losing her cheating husband, she eats herself to obesity and putting the pressure on Jim for him to be the fatherly, and husband, figure in the house while she constantly mentally abuses Medina. Medinas life begins to revolve around surfing and withstanding the “slut” reputation she has created for herself. In a way, Medina enjoys her new found role and does not tell people otherwise when they begin bothering her about it. She feels as though she has found her place in the world and is on the path to discovering who she is. Her entire life has been based on the fact that her mother loves her brother more and her father loves none of them enough to even stay in they’re lives. Medina desperately seeks for love in the men that don’t want her and starts taking on the characteristics of someone who doesn’t even care