Eighteen-year-old Rick Kane, Matt Adler, has just graduated from high school and uses his winnings from a wave-tank surfing contest in Arizona to fly to Hawaii for the summer before college, hoping to become a professional surfer. He plans to stay with a surfer he met in Arizona six months earlier, but discovers this friend is tending bar at a seedy gentlemen's club.
At the bar Rick meets two pro surfers, Alex, Robbie Page, and Mark, Mark Occhilupo, and stays with them at the house of Lance Burkhart, Laird John Hamilton. In the morning, he goes out surfing with Alex and Mark and realizes that surfing in the ocean is totally different to surfing in a wave tank. He is not as good as he had initially thought. They end up at Sunset Beach and try to paddle out, not knowing how to duck dive; he struggles his way out to the line-up. During this scene he runs into Vince Moaloka, Gerry Lopez, leader of a local group named "The Hui" ("The Club"). This causes Vince to wipe out and leads to a confrontation where Rick is chased off the beach after his belongings are stolen by another Hui member.
With nowhere to go, he fortuitously runs into Turtle, John Philbin. Rick Kane also meets and falls in love with Kiani, Nia Peeples, a beautiful local girl who helps him acclimate to the local culture. Turtle introduces him to Chandler, Gregory Harrison, a surfboard shaper and soul surfer, who teaches Rick about soul surfing and Rick masters the art of appreciating and riding waves. During Rick's stay, Chandler is marveled at Rick's talent for art and Rick designs a new graphic for Chandler.
The film's antagonist is Lance Burkhart, Laird John Hamilton, a famous, top-ranked surfer whose competitive and materialistic values ("Give me a Board that works. My Board") conflict with the spiritual teachings of Chandler ("You still have a single-fin-mentality").
> Give me a Board that works. My Board
> You still have a single-fin-mentality
The film climaxes with a surf contest on the Banzai Pipeline as Rick ends up competing against Lance in a duel of skills and beliefs. During the final round, Lance cheats by pulling on Rick's leash, causing him to wipe out. Chandler, initially hostile towards competitive surfing, is outraged, but Rick reminds him that it wasn't about winning, but going the distance.
As Rick prepares to leave for college in New York, he thanks Chandler for his friendship and lessons. While waiting for his flight, Rick is greeted by Turtle and Kiani. He shares a goodbye kiss with Kiani, and Turtle shows Rick a newspaper catching Lance in the act, who was disqualified. Rick promises to come back to the North Shore as he travels to NY where there is no surfing. This is a misnomer, as NY is on the Atlantic Ocean, and Soul Surfers from Rockaway have roamed the beaches for decades.
