Cowabunga.
Hurricane Marie is currently eating Southern California. Beaches washed away, seawalls cracking, homes flooding, panic building for an uncertain Super El Nino season. Local surfers, of course, worried about loss of property value etc. but also too busy cosplaying as Wolf Pak chargers. Visiting surfers, such as Koa Rothman and Koa Smith, enhancing the illusion.
Newport Beach, usually playful, has transitioned into a wild burly tube-fest very reminiscent of the famous Banzai Pipeline. Big large barrels. Crazy drops. In a word, mayhem.
While the best of the best were getting some of the best cylinders of their very lives, the less accomplished were becoming saved by lifeguards.
Adam Yacenda, lifeguard battalion chief for the fire department in Newport Beach, shared that lifeguards carried out 177 rescues on Saturday alone, adding, “Any time you’re approaching over 100, that’s a busy day,” then warning, “We are red-flag conditions from one end of our beach to the other.”
The Wedge, which would be considered one end, also flashed its thang though with less keg.
Which begs the question, for those who call the Southern California home. Did you travel to one of the spots catching max swell, wax your rhino chaser and paddle or did you stay around your local that doesn’t cop straight south swell, wax your plan shape and paddle weird bumpy 3-4ft softies?
I partook in the later though blamed crowds and traffic. Without those, I would have been making shacks at 56th, or wherever it was breaking best in Newport.
Such is life.