SOUTH PADRE ISLAND – Three years after Girls Gone Wild came to South Padre Island amid concerns and some opposition, the college fraternity-room staple has kept a low profile while producing a $90 million-plus gold mine.
Stormy Wall, general manager of Padre South Resort, where the production crew has stayed and filmed for the last three years, is unabashed in his defense of its methods and professionalism despite criticism from some that it is pornography and degrades women.
“Really, it turned out to be a lot of nothing,” he said of concerns about Girls Gone Wild’s first year on the Island.
In Wall’s view, backed up by more than 20 years in the hotel and restaurant businesses, light nudity has become more acceptable as Spring Breakers’ bikinis have shrunk and their vocabularies have become more profane.
“They’re just a lot more casual in their language and how they refer to sex,” he said.
Besides, Wall said, his hotel is privately owned and must compete for attention with a number of corporate-owned hotels, so his relationship with Girls Gone Wild helps balance the scales.
The 90-room Padre South doesn’t have Coca Cola Beach, isn’t affiliated with an energy drink and doesn’t have a sponsor giving away MP3 players. What it does have are guests whose videos almost every college student recognizes.
A Girls Gone Wild spokesman could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon.
The last two years have been lower key than the first, when Girls Gone Wild taped a pay-per-view television special hosted by rapper Snoop Dog.
Girls Gone Wild still films in its old haunts, which include several bars and clubs, but does so more discreetly now. It is careful to post notices about possible videotaping and scrutinizes the IDs of potential participants, Wall said, noting that plenty of club-goers carry video cameras.
“Everybody’s shooting everything,” he said.
And for those who decry its product, Wall said far worse goings went on during March.
“If you go to any Spring Break destination, you’re going to see wild kids having fun,” he said.