Filmmaker Brad Jacobson makes the hour-long drive from the South Bay and into Newport Beach every chance he gets. He’s that infatuated with the Wedge. So if there’s a hint of swell looking like it’ll get sucked into that weird southeast-ish facing nook of the West Coast, Jacobson makes a beeline down the freeway. Code Red 2 presented more than just a hint of swell when it reached California though, lighting the place up with some of the bigger waves it’s seen in recent memory.
While Brad’s no stranger to watching how the lineup and its regulars operate, what Code Red 2’s peak made more abundantly clear than usual was the spot’s not-so-secret cheat code. The online masses who only know the wave from its viral moments don’t get to witness how and why some surfers are able to make unthinkable sections on a wave that’s known for taking more victims than it is known for creating victors. Closeout devastation is half the fun of watching the place go off, after all. But the very thing that makes the Wedge such a unique wave — the legendary side wave that refracts off the jetty — is the very tool surfers use to make it out of the Wedge’s biggest barrels.
Here, Jacobson digs a little into that side wave headstart, aka the Wedge Cheat Code.
