Having lived in Byron Bay, I can vouch for the rampant heterosexuality of the surfing scene.

The idea that any of the mono-syllabic wave-riders I encountered in my time there could embrace the idea of homosexuality is the stuff of pure fantasy; which is why a film about gay surfers is so appealing.

Tan Lines, a gothic take on teenage life in a small coastal town, has been touring film festivals since 2006, and has just been released locally on DVD.

A film about homosexuality in such a heterocentric culture is certainly an original concept, but has it the power to create a whole new genre, that of the gay surfer movie?

Director Ed Aldridge would like that to be the case, but doesn’t really think it will happen any time soon.

“I don’t think it will create a new genre. Some people don’t think Tan Lines is very gay, and others don’t think it’s very surfing. There are a lot of different reactions to it,” he says.

Aldridge, an Englishman, was holidaying in Australia when he came up with the idea for a film about a small town teenager coming to terms with being gay.

“I wrote the first draft and then put it in a drawer, and then my co producer at the time suggested we make it into a film,” Aldridge says.

But making the low-budget drama was no easy matter.

“It was real struggle to find Midget (the protagonist) and when I met Jack Baxter, I knew he was perfect.”

Aldridge used non-actors such as Baxter for many of the film’s key roles, which gives Tan Lines a sense of awkward, adolescent authenticity. That said, the fact of their being untrained also raises the inescapable question of what it was like to work with young straight boys who were being asked to do gay sex scenes.

“They were reticent to begin with, but they were all 16 and friends, so it became more about one-upmanship,” Aldridge explains.

“They kind of really went for it, in order to prove a point more than anything. The only proviso that the boys who played the main characters had was that cock should not touch skin, so we had to make cock guards for them.” he laughs.

Daniel O’Leary, who plays the character of Cass Masters, Midget’s love interest, had only just completed his first year in his Diploma of Performing Arts when Aldridge approached him about the film in a Sydney bar.

“Ed came up to me and my friend, and we were lucky, because we were just what he was looking for,” O’Leary tells MCV.

“It was interesting working with Ed, he just allowed the relationship between the boys - because we all knew each other - to take its course.”

“Basically it’s the story of a boy who is a surfer, and he’s exploring his sexuality, and it’s all quite surreal. It’s about the inner workings of the boy’s mind,” O’Leary says.

Adds Aldridge, “It’s a story of a guy coming out to himself.”

Tan Lines is out now on DVD through FQ Films.

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