Thomerson’s Serious About Acting but He’s Crazy About Surfing

“I’m telling you,” says Tim Thomerson, “it’s like the bitchin’-est thing you can ever do. It’s pretty close to sex.”

Thomerson, who plays Babo, Mel Gibson’s sidekick in the just-released film “Air America,” isn’t talking about acting. He’s actually discussing one of his favorite non-work-related pastimes. Besides being an avid runner and skier--”kind of a fitness head,” as he puts it, Thomerson’s been a surfing disciple since the late ‘50s.

“You’re out in the water, there’s not anybody around you, your old lady’s not yelling at you. . . ,” he says of his sport. “I really like to work, I enjoy what I do--and I also like my down time.”

From the sound of it, Thomerson hasn’t had much down time lately. In the past 15 months, he’s had roles in “Hunter,” “21 Jump Street,” “Young Riders” and “Major Dad,” to name a few. His part in “Air America” sent him to the jungles of Asia for four months--not a lot of surfing there, but Thomerson found other diversions.

“I went diving in the gulfs off Thailand,” he says. “I spent some time traveling around. Location work can be what you make it.”

He may enjoy his leisure time, but for Thomerson, a former stand-up comic who has also starred in the sci-fi satire “Trancers” and in “Uncommon Valor,” acting is serious business. He studied for four years with Stella Adler in New York and recommends actors get some kind of schooling before they start out. “If you make the choice to be an actor, you should find a craft--a technical way of working--meaning when you get a script, you should look into that script and see how it works,” he explains. “You’d better know what you’re doing.”

Now that “Air America” is ready to roll, Thomerson certainly knows what he wants to do next.

“What do I want to do? I want to go surfing,” he answers, without hesitation.