Tubes big enough to fit more than two. Photo: Brent Weldon//YouTube
The 2026 version of Hurricane Marie didn’t reach the strength of the famed 2014 storm with the same name. It was technically on a tropical storm. But Marie 2.0, as it’s become known online across the surf world, lit up Southern California in a similar fashion.
In 2014, Hurricane Marie reached Category 5 in the Southern California swell window and created surf lore that will be passed down to grandchildren for generations. Marie 2.0 only reached Category 2 briefly, but its northwest track was plenty to send a powerful pulse of swell.
From Baja California to Point Conception — and even some rare hurricane swell for Central and Northern California — Marie turned on the classic summer spots. Waves peeled across the cobblestones of Malibu and jacked up into gigantic peaks at the Wedge. But amid the inundation of surf content coming out of the swell, there was one clear winner for best waves: Newport Beach.
Newport served up wave heights rarely seen during the California summer. It had top-to-bottom tubes, board-breaking power, the type of waves that shove sand into your ears that never comes out. There were memorable waves had by many of us — another one of those storms whose legend will withstand the test of time.
