“Rescue: HI-Surf” creators John Wells and Matt Kester have both lived in Hawaii for decades and were keen on showing viewers a side of the state that “really hasn’t been seen before,” Wells said.
The producer behind hits like “ER” and “The West Wing” teamed with Kester, who graduated from Hawaii’s Kahuku High School, to showcase the real Hawaii and its “Aloha Spirit.”
“We both felt that the Hawaii that we knew hadn’t really been shown. You’ll see as you watch the series, you get to know the life of the North Shore, how people live, how Hawaiians live,” Wells said at a preview event for the Fox series.
“It’s a difficult way to live, actually, because it’s an expensive place to live. And so for first responders, for lifeguards, for teachers, it’d be very hard to carve out a life, but it’s so beautiful,” said Wells, who’s had a house on the North Shore of Kauai for 26 years.
“Through the course of the show, you’ll learn so much more about the island and the culture and the people, and their romantic relationships, of course — but also everything that binds them together,” Wells explained.
“The North Shore is an extraordinary community of people who all know each other,” Wells said, adding that newcomers should be ready to engage in “talk story” — that is, answering questions about themselves.
“Everybody is just trying to figure out, how do you fit? Are you a decent person? Do I want to spend time with you?” he shared. “And we try to get across that Aloha Spirit, which, sounds like a cliché, but is a very real thing.”
Kester, who left home to try to become a professional surfer on the North Shore of Oahu, has been in the state for 35 years. He recently spoke with TheWrap about keeping the show “grounded” and vowing to show the authentic Hawaii you don’t often see on TV.
What sets “Rescue: HI-Surf” apart from other rescue shows, Kester said, is its location. “What [does a show like ‘9-1-1’] look like in Hawaii? In ‘Rescue: HI- Surf,’ Hawaii is a character and North Shore is a character,” he explained.
Kester added, “So much of what the show is actually about is Hawaii. It was really important to me to make a show that reflected the Hawaii that I knew that wasn’t from an outsider looking in. So the show is told from the perspective of people who live there. That’s something that I was really passionate about. Lifeguards are very much working-class people in Hawaii and I want that to come through the storytelling, visually, everything else.”
Kester added that he and Wells were looking at “the specific challenges for a lifeguard as a first responder that are different from other kinds of first-responder shows,” along with what is unique about filming in Hawaii.
“One of the first things you learn here in Hawaii is, don’t turn your back on the ocean. Be ready. Be aware of your surroundings,” Kester explained.
“For me, as a surfer my whole life… the ocean teaches you to live in the moment, it teaches you to operate in the present,” Kester said. “Because once you’re out there, you are really in the most dynamic, unpredictable environment you can put yourself in. You’re part of the food chain. You are at the whim of currents and everything else.”
“That’s a trait that I see in so many of the lifeguards — they throw themselves into that environment day in and day out,” he said.
Kester also explained that most of the rescues in the series are based on “real rescue scenarios,” which are then performed by the cast, who are all lifeguard certified to be able to authentically reenact the scenes while actually out in the ocean.
“We consult with the lifeguards and they have incredible stories, and we try as much as possible to remain [true to those]. These are real, practical rescues that have been done before, and we’re trying to recreate them,” Kester said.
“We’re trying to keep it grounded and real, because that grounded and real feeling is what’s exciting about it to us,” he explained.
One of the problems of actually filming in the ocean in Hawaii: actual sharks and whales, Wells shared.
“We have a drone that’s up for sharks the whole time. We tell people when the tigers are around. That happens pretty regularly,” Wells added. “I have shooting reports which say we had a whale delay because one time we were down at Mākaha and a humpback decided he wanted to come by and play with us. We’ve had lots of shark delays. So it’s real.”
“Rescue: HI-Surf” airs Mondays on Fox at 9 p.m.
