The Wedge, Newport Beach, Photo

The Wedge, Newport Beach

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Latitude: 33° 35' 36.81" N, Longitude: 117° 52' 53.97" W, Coord: 33.593561°, -117.88166°
Filed under: Surf on 9/21/2005


Backlit wave, the Wedge. The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 16988 Session: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, August 26, 2006	September swell at the Wedge. The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 14416 Session: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, September 25, 2005	Bodyboarder drops knee, the Wedge. The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 16995 Session: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, August 26, 2006


Wave breaking, tube, Newport Beach. Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 16802 Session: Newport Beach, California, August 4, 2006	Wave breaking, tube, Newport Beach. Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 16803 Session: Newport Beach, California, August 4, 2006	Wave breaking, tube, Newport Beach. Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 16804 Session: Newport Beach, California, August 4, 2006


Ugly wave, the Wedge. The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 18706 Session: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, April 12, 2007	Kirk Blackman, Newport Beach. Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 16830 Session: Newport Beach, California, August 5, 2006	Kirk Blackman, September swell Newport Beach, California. Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 14393 Session: Newport Beach, California, September 25, 2005

The Wedge in Newport Beach is one of the world’s most notorious and exciting bodysurfing spots. Locals in the 70’s and 80’s developed a reputation for getting barreled in the bruising, thick wave while risking being pile-driven onto the sand if they got sucked over. Growing up in Newport in the 60s and 70s, I remember many times sirens would sound down Newport Boulevard as an ambulance raced to the Wedge to attend to some poor soul who had gone over the falls trying to impress his buds or the (quite fine) local girls, crunching bones as he returned to the beach. The old-school still bodysurfs the Wedge by virtue of a local ordinance that forbids any boards in the water between 10am and 5pm. However, these days boards rule the Wedge, working the place with bodyboards and standup. The Wedge is best on a south swell. Incoming waves reflecting off the adjacent jetty combine with the next wave to form a doubled-up triangular mutant mountain wave that pitches over thick and fast in surprisingly shallow water. The result is a big, sucking, foam-filled donut. Don’t get caught inside during a closeout set.

See more photos of the Wedge taken recently.


Breaking wave, fast motion and blur. The Wedge. The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 14355 Session: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, September 25, 2005	Breaking wave, fast motion and blur. The Wedge. The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 14354 Session: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, September 25, 2005	Tube, the Wedge. The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, USA. Image: 17007 Session: The Wedge, Newport Beach, California, August 26, 2006