| Actor | Role | Description |
| Bruce Greenwood | Mitch Yost | An aging and proud professional surfer who co-owns a surf shop with his wife. Their marriage is tumultuous, primarily due to Mitch's self-indulgent behavior and Cissy's overbearing personality. Mitch has come to believe that surfing should be an end unto itself, and that judged competitive events have tainted the sport. |
| Rebecca De Mornay | Cissy Yost | Mitch's stubborn wife and co-owner of the surf shop. It is revealed that when her son Butchie was an adolescent, and she was under the influence of LSD, Cissy caught him masturbating and proceeded to show him "how to do that." Her regret and self-recrimination over this event had a serious impact on her emotions. |
| Brian Van Holt | Mitch "Butchie" Yost II | Mitch's heroin-addicted son and professional surfer, whose painful adolescence has rendered him emasculated and incapable of shouldering great responsibility. Became a professional surfer after signing with Linc Stark then revolutionized the sport by popularizing aerials in surfing. |
| Austin Nichols | John Monad | A mysterious person, seemingly mentally disabled, who often repeats what he has already heard or what people are thinking, and can manifest requested objects through his pockets. He appears to be able to perform astral projection. During the projection, John is able to converse naturally, without resorting to only repeating words already spoken by others. His last name refers to the Greek word monas, a term the Pythagoreans linked to God as the original "one" from whom all else flows, a clue to a secret divinity or primal "oneness". |
| Ed O'Neill | Bill Jacks | An obsessive retired police officer and friend of the Yosts who tends to babble and talk to himself, and constantly tries to fill the hole that Butchie has made in Shaun's life. His house is filled with caged birds, with whom he converses. |
| Luke Perry | Linc Stark | A surf talent scout, manager and agent. Owner of Stinkweed surf products. Recently bought out by his financial backers. |
| Luis Guzmán | Ramon Gaviota | Manager and caretaker of the Snug Harbor Motel. |
| Matt Winston | Barry Cunningham | A mentally unstable man who recently won the Mega Millions lottery and bought the local Snug Harbor Motel; went to grade school with Butchie. He experienced sexual abuse by Mr. Rollins in room 24 of the motel as a child and originally purchased it with the intent to tear it down. Was bullied in high school, specifically by Butchie Yost. A blow to the head caused him to develop epileptic seizures during which he has visions that guide his decisions. |
| Willie Garson | Meyer Dickstein | Lawyer and huge surf fan who hangs around the Snug Harbor Motel, and who arranged the sale of the hotel to the new owner, Barry Cunningham. |
| Jennifer Grey | Daphne | Meyer Dickstein's fiancée. |
| Greyson Fletcher | Shaun Yost | 14-year-old son of Butchie Yost and Tina Blake; surf prodigy. Tina gave Shaun to his grandparents, Cissy and Mitch Yost, to raise the day he was born. |
| Keala Kennelly | Kai | A young woman surfer who works at the Yosts' surf shop. She is friends with Shaun Yost, and usually surfs with him. Dated Butchie in high school. |
| Jim Beaver | Vietnam Joe | A war veteran who helps people cross the Mexican border into the U.S. illegally. Grows and smokes marijuana. |
| Garret Dillahunt | Dr. Michael Smith | The neurologist who treated Shaun after a surfing accident. Subsequently resigned to shield Shaun from undue scrutiny after Shaun's miracle recovery from a broken neck sustained while winning his first surf competition. |
| Dayton Callie | Steady Freddie Lopez | A drug dealer from Hawaii with ties to the Yost family, particularly Butchie. |
| Emily Rose | Cass | A filmmaker formerly employed by Linc Stark to seduce Mitch and break up Mitch and Cissy's marriage because, unlike Cissy, Mitch does not want Shaun to become a competition surfer, especially with Linc Stark, whom Mitch blames for Butchie's disastrous failings. |
| Paul Ben-Victor | Palaka | An associate of Steady Freddie Lopez. |
| Chandra West | Tina Blake | Shaun's mother. She now works as a pornographic actress and prostitute but wants to leave the business. |
| Mark-Paul Gosselaar | Jake Ferris | Linc Stark's business partner. |
| Matthew Maher | Dwayne | Harelipped maintainer of the Yost family web site. Usually works out of Jerri's coffee shop. |
| Paula Malcomson | Jerri | Operates local coffee shop. |
