A majority of footage featuring Orange County’s weirdest wave is watched en masse for one primary reason: to watch people get smoked. Like NASCAR crashes, hockey fights, rubbernecking as you drive past a jackknifed 18-wheeler, or even old episodes of Jersey Shore, it’s tough to turn your attention away from things you know are going to be disastrous. This is not what you’re going to see here today. At least not on a level that will quench that sadistic thirst.
Yes, we celebrate the humans who escape the Wedge’s caverns without receiving sand enemas, but only because we expect a broken board or a trip to the chiropractor is actually on the other end of each set wave. But just like any other wave on the planet, a myriad of factors make her tick differently. That unique, somewhat-east-facing nook where the Balboa Peninsula and Newport Harbor Jetty tends to call for more southerly swells in order to create its namesake refracting shape. Send some swell that’s a bit more west and you end up with something like the waves that pounded the place to start this week. Days like this turn into waves and sections that actually appear makeable.
“A little heavy on the west part of the swell, but hey, I’m not complaining,” videographer Steve Cummings, aka JacuzziSurfer, said after his Monday morning film session in Newport. ” I’m thankful that I’m able to get out of the house and see the Wedge back at it again.”
This is the kind of size that makes us all excited for Wedge season (especially the solid set that rolls through at about the 6:30 mark), only this day didn’t bring the kind of carnage we’re used to.
Editor’s Note: Watch more from videographer and The Inertia contributor JacuzziSurfer on YouTube, here.
