A strict rule following high school senior joins a group of country club lifeguards. He quickly discovers they focus their energy on goofing off and throwing parties. Over the summer, Mike learns to have fun for the first time.

Pals Danny and Frank spend the summer after high school working as lifeguards while figuring out their future.

An underwater earthquake generates a tsunami that strikes Malibu, bringing a hunting pack of prehistoric-looking goblin sharks to the surface. Although the beach is evacuated before the big wave strikes, a group of lifeguards and a crew of construction workers are stranded in the high water and have to fight the sharks to get to dry land.

It’s the day before Christmas, the day before John’s 21st birthday. He’s a prostitute on Santa Monica Blvd in L.A., and he wants to spend that night and the next day at the posh Park Plaza Hotel. He’s ripped off a local drug dealer to pay the bill, but as he’s sleeping that morning, someone steals his shoes right off his feet, with the money in them. Meanwhile, Donner, a lad new to the streets, wants John to leave the city with him for Camelot, a theme park in Branson, MO, where they’ll work as lifeguards. John spends the day trying to hustle the money for the hotel, avoid Jimmy the Warlock, keep his girl friend placated, and figure out how to deal with Donner’s friendship.

A determined teenage boy struggles to find acceptance within the Jr. Lifeguards of Hermosa Beach while juggling relationships and challenges in the summer of 1986.