This is just insane… my jaw was un-hinged for this entire video. For those who don’t know, “The Wedge” is basically the gnarliest break in Newport Beach, known to be deadly (you can see why from this video). This wave is a beast… basically if you survive the drop in and make your one bottom turn before the closeout, you made it.
Sorry… still haven’t learned how to embed these
Speaking of deadly! Watch the video, at 2:05 a fellow takes off, and at 2:12 his board stops dead in the water throwing him off. I think he hit a submerged swimmer! Run it a few times, and notice how the board stays in the same position as the wave closes over it. Big OUCH!
The dirty nasty old Wedge, the closest to drowning I’ve ever been was at the Wedge. I didn’t give it the respect that it demands and paid the price in swallowed water and being scratched to shit by a brutal hold down that scrubbed me along the bottom. Lesson learned in 1967 and never tried it again.
wedge has its days when it get really good, usually in the couple feet over head range. when its that big though its just try to make the drop and pull into the biggest shack.
Right? Big time ouch… or the bodyboarder at 2:40 who drops in on the surfer and nearly takes off his legs!
Used to surf Wedge, as big as it gets all the time when it wasn’t cool to pose. I remember taking Richie Collins there his first time when he was in 9th grade, which happened to be his last day in school, because of something that happened at Calvary; Lance was pissed when we came back and Richie looked like a flying rag doll when we got back. He didn’t care about us surfing Wedge, just what happened at school. Anyone who knows LC and Rich, well that’s the way it was. Still I have to say I have ultimate respect for both of them; Lance because he was a machine when it came to production shaping, and what he taught me, and Rich because somewhere in there, there is a good guy, and way too much talent. Yeah, as big, bad and gnarly as it gets…
Textbook definition of the term “dropping out of the sky.”
Not a lot of options:
Maybe a bit smaller, but certainly not short on “nasty”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFZfDUIDnak&NR=1&feature=endscreen
I count one option on that photo Dropknee… “Don’t die”
And damn… I knew shipsterns was gnarly, but that’s a lot of dry reef/rock poking out in the middle of the curl - does anyone paddle that place when it gets super big? I know they do on big days but I mean, what about HUGE days?
The Invincibles go on a hurting safari:
