Transfiguration
Jarman depicts the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ from the internal perspective of Jesus. He feels alienated from those around him, coupled with enormous pressure to do something amazing. As he hears the expectations of the people around him, Jesus dwells intensely upon the subject of pain. He achieves enlightenment, reflected in a physical transformation witnessed by three friends, by transcending the grip of pain upon his mind and body.
Descriptions of Heaven and Hell
The terrifying, rocky shoreline which the narrator is certain must be hell is actually heaven. The ominous, unavoidable path proves ironically the safe one. As the waves throw the narrator against the rocks, he realizes the rocks are the feet of his God. On the other hand, the narrator recalls asking a male role model what happens after death. He responded that most likely love receives the dead person. To someone who doesn't understand or know love, this answer is puzzling and they don't even know why. This confusion is hell.
Ground Swell
The author admits embarrassment for writing selfishly about his experiences at sixteen-years-old, but that year was the beginning of an awakening for him which has carried him into authorship and thus demands to be written. At the time, the author was surfing a lot and working at a theater. He remembers riding some ambitious waves, getting hurt sometimes, and one day meeting an older boy from church on the surf. The boy says the author's name in recognition, almost surprise. Just realizing he was noticed by this role model changes the narrator's self-perception. Years later he recalls how his own father preached at the boy's funeral when he died in combat.
The Supremes
Remembering high school through the music of the Supremes, the narrator is able to recall with vivid detail the sensual experience of that time. He and his friends surfed, one long repetitive, satisfying dream. At the end of the wave which proverbially encompasses all of their school years, one friend breaks under the pressure and another leaves for busy Vegas to make money, yet the author remembers the three of them suspended in the waves, still listening to Diana Ross and her backup singers.
