Wedge of ‘Epic’ Surf : At Newport’s notorious wave mixer, ‘conditions just came together. There was no wind, the sun was out, and the swell was 10 to 12 feet.’ So the adventurous enjoyed a savory. . .

With the aplomb of Dirty Harry, Kevin (Mel) Thoman delivered his daily phone message to “The Crew’s” brethren.

“I know what you are thinking punk, and I don’t care ‘cause this is Clint and this is the afternoon Wedge-wear Wedge report. On the hottest day of the year, the glassiest day of the year and the best day of the year, there’s a solid 4- to 6-foot swell, with occasional 8- and 10-foot sets, with Terry Wade getting the peak of the day on a solid 10-footer. Good job Wade! If you can get down there, do it. . . . See you tomorrow.”

The Wedge was everything Thoman said it was Wednesday afternoon, as a series of storms off Mexico produced some of the biggest surf Southern California has seen in at least a year. For almost a week, well-shaped waves of 4 to 10 feet with faces almost twice that size have been firing at this popular spot immediately northwest of the west jetty of Newport Harbor’s entrance.

“It’s been epic,” said Ron (Romo) Romanosky, a Wedge veteran who rides a knee board. “I wish I could have sole ownership of this place.”

The good surf began last weekend and backed off for a day or so, before culminating Wednesday with consistently large surf that brought out many of the Wedge’s veteran bodysurfers and knee-boarders. That included members of “The Crew,” who represent the top of the pyramid at the legendary surf spot.

Waves with faces of 15 to 20 feet were reported, and one enormous wave was seen with a face estimated at 25 feet. Those who were in the water say that ominous wall of water went unridden.

“It was definitely was one of the best days of the year,” said Thoman, a veteran bodysurfer who compiles “the Crew’s” daily surf report. “The conditions just came together. There was no wind, the sun was out, and the swell was 10 to 12 feet.”

Wednesday morning started with just a handful of bodysurfers and knee-boarders in the water. By 9 a.m., more than 30 people were out, many riding bodyboards.

What makes this place so attractive to so many is the sheer speed and acceleration--the standing starts from 0 to 30 m.p.h. in just a few seconds--a sensation that one veteran lifeguard has likened to being sprayed with a fire hose.

“You really fly,” said Fred Simpson, a swim-fin designer who has surfed the Wedge since 1960. “You are going so fast, it feels like you are unrolling your skin.”

Simpson, 53, who owns Viper Swim Fins, surfed for three sessions of two hours each at the Wedge on Wednesday. He said he was so tired at the end of the day that he hoped he would not be in a position to take any more waves if they appeared.

He called the spot his “resurgent development laboratory.”

“For bodysurfing, the Wedge is a very, very high-performance wave,” said Terry Wade, 31, who first surfed here when he was 14. “It is one of the most challenging waves in the world. It is so powerful and steep.”

At the Wedge, incoming south swells slam off the 200,000-ton rock jetty and collide with the next wave behind them, forming a triangular wall of water. In a strange arithmetic based on the direction of the swell and the angle of jetty, a 10-foot swell can develop a 20-foot face so steep that a surfboard cannot stay in the wave.

The federal Works Progress Administration created this freak of wave physics in the 1930s when it built the jetty at the tip of the Balboa Peninsula to prevent large swells from rocking boats in Newport Bay’s entrance.

The Wedge was first known as the Hook, and surfers considered the large waves unrideable. Then a group of former Navy frogmen with some surplus swim fins started bodysurfing there after World War II.

The Wedge, for all its pleasures, carries extreme risks. Here backs and necks can be snapped on sand that can feel like Tarmac. Rip currents drag swimmers around. Thoman said currents once took him around in circles twice, hence another nickname, the Toilet.

Big waves can hold someone under for half a minute, which can seem like an eternity. Sand scrapes are common. So are sprains, strains and wrenched limbs.

For the unlucky, there are dislocated shoulders and spinal injuries that can paralyze from the neck down. A sudden powerful surge can also knock down unwary spectators on the beach and roll them into deep water in seconds. Some have drowned.

“If you know what you are doing, you can get hurt,” Simpson said. “If you are inexperienced, you can get hurt a lot sooner. I have seen more dead people at that beach than anywhere else--little girls and grown men.”

On Thursday, Simpson and some of the others were at the Wedge again. The surf had dropped to a third of Wednesday size.

t has been such a weird fall, no one can predict what the surf will be like Friday,” he said. “Who knows?”

Simpson said he would at least check the surf today, and Thoman will be down there too to prepare another message.

The Edge of the Wedge The Wedge was created when the Work Projects Administration built a second (west) jetty at the Newport Bay entrance to keep vessels from surfing into the bay at 20 knots during a southswell. On the Balboa side, the jetty produces a compression effect that triples wave mass and speed and can transform a gentle, 5-foot swell into a gnarly 10-foot peak. The Wedge got its name from the shape of the waves it produces. A wave bounces off the jetty and combines with the next wave into a larger peak. The Mechanics 1. A bitg wave at the Wedge is the result of a tropical storm in Mexico or a major storm in the Southern Hemisphere. Swells can travel 600 miles in a day. 2. As approaching wave breaks, it is reflected off the west jetty. 3. the reflected wave collides with the next wave, creating a “wedge” twice the size of the original waves. 4. During big-wave conditions, bodysurfers are hurtled down the steep face of the wave. The Wedge is extremely dangerous and should not be challenged by the inexperienced. Source: Surfrider Foundation, Surfer Magazine Researched by DALLAS M. JACKSON / Los Angeles Times