The Wedge is a beach next to a jetty at a 45 degree angle to the shore. When waves come in from the south they bounce off the jetty and travel perpendicular to the beach. This creates two interesting phenomena: sideways waves and peaks. The sideways waves are close to shore and come bouncing off the jetty. It seems to take them about 20 years to reform and there is a sweet spot. These were the obvious place to start. The peaks happen a bit further out. The sideways wave meets the the second incoming wave and creates a double height wave. Riding the double height waves is the thrill of the wedge. The wedge is one of several OC beaches that fly a black ball from 10AM to 5PM. This means bodysurfers only! Well, technically it means no flotation devices. Thanx to Dario for offering to drive me and Doug for very helpful advice about the break itself. Mostly, a big thank you to my nephew Forrester who ended up driving me up from San Diego - from SIGGRAPH, the reason for my trip and the reason my time at the wedge was so constrained. No thanx to the couple of "you're gonna die messages"! We arrive on Friday afternoon 1-AUG-2003 and a few people say it is starting to pick up, the first swells they have seen in a while. We watch for a while. A few peaks, but a lot of fun in the side ways waves. I catch a few of these, but, spend time a little farther out thinking I was going to catch a larger sideways wave. Nope. But a good vantage point. I caught three good sideways waves. The first I just naively rode until the next waves caught up and rolled. The next one I rode up and over the incoming wave and the last was curling and I pulled hard under and thru the oncoming wave. So, the surf has built up a little while Forrester & I have been mucking about in the side surf. He goes in and I go have out near the sweet spot for the peaks. I ride a couple up to that point where you are looking over the cliff. I know ones perceptions are all screwed up, but it seems plausible that I was looking down 15 feet that day, perhaps a bit more. It seemed like it was 30 or 40 feet. I swam back around a caught another sideways wave. We had skipped lunch and wandered off and too long to find sandwiches. We were due in Long Beach at 6PM and when we got back to be wedge, it did not seem to be the same wedge we left. We headed north but stopped at 18th? St for a few smaller rides. Saturday we were on a boat sailing by a surf contest. Sunday morning 3-AUG-2003 I have a small time window. I drive down and park and I am on the beach at 9:10. The water is MUCH colder, about 63/64 degrees. You can't swim too long without a wet suit. There are warm spots. There are a flock of boogie boards out there. Since I'm only going to last in the water for 40 minutes at that temperature, I decide to wait until the blackball flag goes up. That's perfect because then I need to head back anyway. I keep watching the waves breaking on the traveling sideways ridge thinking it was less dangerous to try to ride down and then out onto the ridge. I know I can't explain this, but, it seems so stupid now. I think I was just trying to ease into things. Anyway, the first two peaks I caught, I tried going right. A good roll, but, not like the next one. It seems that almost all rides at the wedge end up getting rolled. The trick is to ride it out far enough that you get rolled by a small wave. One way to ride out farther is to stick your hand out to help steer. You don't really need to do this on smaller waves, and for the most part, Long Island has smaller waves. I just don't stick my arm out. A few Californians would come out and bodysurf with their arms out. I like sliding over the water with nothing in front of me. When I do driving games I always choose the camera mounted on the front of the car option. This old dog will have to learn some new tricks, but, not yet. I caught two peaks. When I went out after the first one this great guy who was in the water both Friday and Sunday told me had great position at the take off. I'd agree and I had a great cut down to my left. A tremendous rush, but, no arm, no cutting far enough out to the smaller waves. I got rolled quite well and one of my fins came off - mostly due to the lame neoprene ankle brace I was using as an "anklet". Luckily, it was floating near shore. I guess the advice from Doug also discouraged me from trying to cut out too far. "For heavens sake get down as fast as you can so you don't get pitched." Having seen David lane's boogie board video last summer made a strong impression on me! I went back to see it, my memory had exaggerated it quite a bit! http://vclass.mtsac.edu:940/dlane/mowedgeintro.mpg I go in. Time check with the life guard, only 10:45. Time for one more run. I hand out a bit hoping for the wave to end all waves :-). A good size wave comes in and I'm not out to the side enough to get the shoulder, but, it is sort of choppy and lots of waves were crumbling instead of curling. So, what the hell, I take straight down. There is nothing like the rush of going straight down. Whoosh all the way down and out in front of the wave for a bit and then boom! the wave caught up. A bit more time in the churn. I pop up and head out. I'm late. So, that's the story of my twin peaks. SIGGRAPH is in LA next year, so, unless I'm sailing to Catalina with John, I expect to be back at the wedge next August on Friday the 13th! As long as I have your attention, I had the most and best waves on Long Island that I can remember. Thank you NOAA for the wave models. They told me that Friday July 4th would be the best day and in spite of social obligations, I made it out for a couple of nice big waves. The next weekend, too. Saturday was the day to go out, not Sunday. True it was, but at Road K, the sand bar was a long truck out. I'm a GEEK and I don't like exaggerating, so, I can honestly say that the break was more than 100 yards out. Mostly a 60 yard swim through the soup and then about 40 yards pushing through the white water as it scraped over the sand bar, which was perhaps 8 feet deep. Some nice long cuts, but, usually I only stay out for three or so waves. It takes a while to get out, but, the first wave reminds you of why you did it. The second wave is great, but, then waiting for the third wave, especially if there is nobody else in the water can get kind of lonely. Heck, lonely, pushing 50, so, after my 3 waves I went down to the beach with the lifeguards. They are having some sort of surf contest, but, they are staying in by the shore. Meanwhile there is an excellent surfer out at the bigger break. I have bad lifeguard karma. People say you should check in with the life guards in Oahu, but, I must not know the secret handshake. Only one said he'd keep an eye on me - Johnny Angel (See Hawai'i 2002 fish tail). Two others said I could not go out. Oh well, back to Road K for another swim out to the break - without anyone hassling me. Vacation was awesome! The first four days August 9..12 were all great. The bar had moved in a bit. Same routine, get there about 9AM a few surfers, but not enough to crowd out all of the various break spots. Swim out, take 3 - 5 waves, usually 2 great ones. The surfers were even polite and respectful on my vacation. I must be getting old. Anyway, I caught a wave and the surfer could have hopped in front of me, but he did not. The was huge by east coast standards, which means that even the most conservative person would call it 6", From the top it seems like 12" great chute down the face and then out to the side and a great lateral move - 40 yards at least. Then, the weather cleared and the water cleared really clear - not the 30-40 feat visible you sometime get in Hawai'i, but 15 feet visible, and since you are only in 4 feet of water you can see the bottom perfectly. The water only gets that clear every couple of years. So, it was crystal clear, great weather and some little waves. Perfect for getting the whole family out in the water. We went to a wedding yesterday, so, I missed my Labor Day swim 2003.