Wedge, Newport Beach, April 12

A southern hemi swell kicked up the surf the past couple days. Biggest was in Orange County with it’s southern exposure. I could not get up there until this morning and I missed the peak of the swell. I tried Ponto yesterday and got in double-overhead waves with a lens that was too wide to get any proper shots, enjoying a real thigh-burner leg-cramp session kicking against the current for two hours straight. This morning I opted to stay dry and was glad I did. A 45-minute sunrise spin up I-5, grab a bite, then park. First bad omen: people were walking back to their cars. I went out to take a look anyway. The Wedge was a bumpy mess. There was plenty of wave energy but it was reverberating all over and had no consistency. I’m not sure that I would have gotten any good shots had I got in the water, the wave directions were changing with each set and it would have been hard to stay in the pit. Only a few guys were out. I should have been up there yesterday.