South swell delivers big waves

After a summer marked by red tides, black jellyfish and flat surf,

Newport Beach finally got some ridable waves Wednesday.

“This is probably the best one [day] of the summer,” Cypress

bodyboarder Scott Lennon said after riding the waves at the Wedge.

“There was another one when it’s been 10 feet at the Wedge, but this

one’s been pretty fun.”

At the far east end of the Balboa Peninsula, where the sand meets

the harbor jetty, the notorious Wedge has challenged bodysurfers for

decades. The quality of the waves changed throughout the day, but at

about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, the waves were true to the Wedge’s fierce

reputation. A series of 10-footers thundered toward the shore, while

about a dozen bodysurfers bobbed in the churning waters. Once a

bodysurfer found a suitable wave, he or she could swim toward the

shore with the it and jet through the water.

The rides felt “really clean, just fun,” Newport Beach bodysurfer

Nate Castillo said. “This is probably the best its been all summer.”

Wednesday’s waves were the result of a south swell that peaked

Wednesday, Surfline operations manager Adam Wright said. Surfline is

a Huntington Beach-based surf-forecasting company and Wright

supervises Surfline’s forecast team. He said the swell would continue

to generate waves through this morning. The best places in Newport to

find waves Wednesday were the Wedge and the beach near 56th street,

Wright said. He said Wednesday’s swell generated some of the best

surf in the last three weeks.

Recently, big waves have been hard to come by.

“We had a real bad flat spell at the end of July that lasted

almost to the end of last week,” Wright said.

Much of the Balboa Peninsula and upper West Newport were

red-flagged Wednesday, Newport Lifeguard Capt. Jim Turner said. Red

flags are a warning to novice surfers and swimmers that the waves

might be more than they can handle.

Waiting for his shift to end Wednesday, Turner was thinking about

heading to the Wedge for some off-duty riding.

“I’m probably going to throw on my fins and go down there too,”

Turner said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at

[email protected].