If you like Gidget, check out This Could Be the Night (1957)
Then spot similarities between the two films. I made a post about many of the similarities on the This Could Be the Night board. This Could Be the Night isn't a beach film and main characters are generally older than characters in Gidget (except one), but there's still quite a few parallels.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051074