The Dirty Ol’ Wedge under severe threat after wild summer of swell

"There's stuff that's falling apart. So it's sharp and dangerous, so yeah it's getting to be an emergency."

But does anything thrill quite like the mayhem of a summer at The Wedge? Newport Beach’s iconic mutant, born from a wonderful U.S. Army Corps of Engineers breakwater at the very north of Balboa Peninsula that transformed otherwise nothingness into a neck-cracking joy.

During the summer months, when south swells mow in and light up the coast, The Wedge gets extra as all that energy refracts off the breakwater and makes Waimea on the Sand. This year, though, the locals are worried about massive erosion of the beach and fears are percolating that her time is limited.

Photographer Brent Weldon told ABC 7 that he’s never seen anything quite as bad as this summer. “We’ve already had I think like three big hurricanes and there might be another couple more coming and the problem is each one of these is taking away more and more sand and it’s just disappearing really quick,” he said.

Local Erik Apple added, “There’s stuff that’s falling apart. So it’s sharp and dangerous, so yeah it’s getting to be an emergency. People are already getting hurt and there’s only gonna be more.”

Nobody knows quite what to do. Sand replenishment is but a quick band-aid and other more concrete structures could forever change the nature of the joint.

Are you solutions-oriented sort?

Ideas? Become inspired, here.