A Guide to the Best of Southern California : EXCURSIONS : A Show of Force

Oahu’s Pipeline may be spectacular, but there is only one body-slamming spectacle of a wave.

Only one that ricochets off a jetty and collides with the wave behind it, forming a triangular water wall: the Wedge.

Man created this misfit in the late ‘30s when the Works Progress Administration built a second jetty at the tip of Balboa Peninsula to prevent waves from rocking boats in the Newport Bay entrance. At its peak, the Wedge is the biggest--25-foot faces--and most punishing wave in Southern California.

Never passive, it lives up to its nickname, “The Sledge” (as in hammer), when south swells--the days-old offspring of distant summer storms--hit the coast.

People line the shore to root for--or gawk at--those who dare to take a pounding, mostly experienced bodysurfers and body boarders, or just to catch some spray.

Several recorded surf reports track incoming swells: Wave-Trak, (900) 2GO-SURF, (75 cents a minute) and the city of Newport Beach (714) 673-3371.

To get to the Wedge from Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach, take Balboa Boulevard to the end of the peninsula. Park on a side street and walk along the jetty to the shore.