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California

Drones, spotted over California beaches, catch epic waves

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Huge surf drew dozens of surfers, boogie boarders and body surfers, along with thousands of onlookers, to the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Waves topped 20 feet at times at the Wedge jetty in Newport Beach.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfboard is broken by the huge waves at the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Two surfers ride a wave together during the heavy surf at the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Emily Rhyne / Los Angeles Times)
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The powerful waves at Newport Beach’s Wedge jetty often knocked surfers off their boards.  (Emily Rhyne / Los Angeles Times)
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By sunrise, hundreds of onlookers had gathered to watch surfers, boogie boarders and body surfers take on the waves at the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Emily Rhyne / Los Angeles Times)
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Huge surf drew dozens of surfers, boogie boarders and body surfers along with thousands of onlookers to the Wedge in Newport Beach.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A bodyboarder rides a large wave at the Wedge in Newport Beach, where the surf reached up to 20 feet.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Huge surf drew thousands of onlookers to the Wedge in Newport Beach, where at times the waves topped 20 feet.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer gets a tube ride at the Wedge in Newport Beach.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Morning light cast shadows on visitors to the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A lifeguard looks on as heavy surf pounds the Wedge in Newport Beach.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer flies off the lip of a large wave at the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer bails out of a huge wave at the Wedge in Newport Beach, where at times the waves topped 20 feet.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer escapes a wall of water at the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Surfers slide down a huge wave Wednesday at the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer raises his arm to acknowledge a screaming crowd at the Wedge in Newport Beach. Thousands of spectators lined the beach Wednesday to watch waves as high as 25 feet tall generated by Hurricane Marie off the Pacific coast.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Water splashes some of the people watching surfers Wednesday at the Wedge in Newport Beach.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Young surfers walk along the beach after riding huge waves Wednesday at the Wedge jetty in Newport Beach.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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A body-board rider races down the glassy face of a big wave at the Wedge jetty in Newport Beach on Wednesday.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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Spectators standing on the breakwater at the entrance to Newport Bay watch waves crashing on the beach in Newport Beach.  (Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer rides high surf caused by Hurricane Marie hundreds of miles away in Seal Beach Wednesday.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Los Angeles County lifeguard Dave Carr, right, on a personal water craft, pulls to shore a surfer amid crashing waves at Surfrider beach next to the Malibu Pier.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Surfers ride the waves at Surfrider beach next to the Malibu Pier.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer catches air while riding at Surfrider beach next to the Malibu Pier.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Laird Hamilton uses a standup paddleboard at Surfrider beach.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Laird Hamilton prepares his standup paddleboard for surfing at Surfrider beach in Malibu.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Seal Beach lifeguards ask spectators along the shoreline to vacate the beach due to the high surf and tide surge caused by Hurricane Marie.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Steve Trachta and his 8-year-old daughter, Alex, leap over a ditch created to channel water away from homes along Seal Beach.   (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Seal Beach lifeguards cleared the shoreline of spectators due to the high surf and storm surge caused by Hurricane Marie.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
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Huge swells generated by Hurricane Marie pound the Malibu Pier on Wednesday morning.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Laird Hamilton paddles out against high surf generated by Hurricane Marie in Malibu.  (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)
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Allen Sarlo, 57, of Malibu, and legendary surfer Laird Hamilton surf a large wave through the Malibu Pier.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer flies through the air as he punches out of one of the large storm-generated waves.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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As night falls, a surfer makes the most of one of the large hurricane-generated waves rolling through Southland beaches.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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Waves spurred by the storm damaged the Malibu Pier and will continue at local beaches over the next few days.   (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
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A surfer, his leash tangled in kelp, was among those taking advantage of the high surf at Southern California beaches from the late-August storm.  (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
By Hailey Branson-PottsStaff Writer 
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The monster waves hitting Southern California thanks to Hurricane Marie brought out crowds to local beaches. The waves also brought out some drones.

Some arresting footage of big waves has been posted on YouTube. One looked at the scene from Imperial Beach. Another captured images from Wedge in Newport Beach, where waves topped 18 feet.

A third from Tuesday photographed surfers at the Malibu Pier.

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On Sunday, Marie became a Category 5 hurricane (the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale). National Weather Service weather specialist Stuart Seto said Marie’s wind speeds reached over 157 mph but that the storm has been rapidly weakening.

Marie has been moving west-northwest at about 15 mph, Seto said. It has churned up waves that are pounding Southern California shores. The storm was about 880 miles west of the southern tip of Baja as of Wednesday morning, Seto said.

“As the storm sits there, it generates waves,” Seto said. “Even though it’s tracking west-northwest, these waves it generated a day or a couple of days ago are reaching us, coming from the south.”

Seto said the potential for flooding the last few days has been amplified by the high surf coming in on top of high tides. The high tides are the peak periods for flooding.

Marie continues to weaken and is expected to weaken tonight to a point where it is just a tropical storm, not a hurricane.

Hurricane Marie is the first Category 5 hurricane in the eastern North Pacific basin since Hurricane Celia in 2010, according to the NOAA NWS National Hurricane Center.

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Hailey Branson-Potts

Hailey Branson-Potts is an enterprise reporter on the State Team who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2011. She reports on a wide range of issues and people, with a special focus on Northern California and the Central Coast. She grew up in the small town of Perry, Okla., and graduated from the University of Oklahoma.

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