Overlooked Newport Wedges in to Rightful Place in History

On a recent afternoon, Fig and I headed for Newport Beach. We had heard about a new surfing exhibit at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum and wanted to check it out.

We half expected it to include the usual dust collectors such as some early long boards, swim fins, and a photograph or two. But the exhibit, which is on Newport Beach’s surfing history, was quality stuff, and it got us talking about Newport’s waves.

“You know, Fig,” I said, “Huntington always got most of the limelight, but there are plenty of prime surfing spots down here, like 38th Street and 56th Street, and Newport has got the lock on attitudes out there at the groins.”

Fig: Fer shure. You gotta be competitive at the groins. There’s some heavy jockeying off those jetties. People are taking off farther and farther back off those jetties, like almost taking off from one side just to peel down the other side of a jetty. Kodak Reef is what they used to call it, ‘cause you can take some great photos there.

Judging from the memorabilia, it was clear that Newport Beach was pivotal in surfing’s evolution on the West Coast. Early surfboard makers Dale Velzy and Joe Quigg had retail outlets here, the famous Rendezvous Ballroom where Dick Dale, King of the Surf Guitars, jammed was THE weekend hangout, and of course, it was home to the Newport Beach Surfing Club, billed in the ‘60s as “the largest club in the United States.”

We took a nostalgic walk through the exhibit. There were old Beach Boy and Dick Dale albums, surfing memorabilia and awesome color photos of Newport’s best days, including aerial shots from the 1930s that showed Newport Beach as an underpopulated sand spit with plenty of uncrowded surf--a far cry from today’s wall-to-wall housing and surfers.

Man, do you mean that all that growth happened in only 60 years? WOW!

Fig kept wandering off, looking for information about Newport’s famed Wedge, (the city’s east jetty where waves wedge up after striking the jetty and almost double in size), like how and when it was built. So I tried to keep him busy.

“Yo, Fig. Check out the early surfboard shaping tools,” I said, pointing to a glass case housing an old balsa wood scraper, planer, and an adz, an ax-like tool for wood trimming that looked like it was used in a cemetery to exhume the dead--all from the 1950s.

Whoa, these were before power equipment, huh? Pretty primitive, if you ask me. Wow! Check out the permit. It says “Newport Beach 1966.”

The permit was about 2 by 5 inches. Fig said the city used to make you buy one of these things and have it on your board at all times.

I guess the city wanted to hassle the surfers, huh, Fig?

Nah, they just wanted to make money off of you.

In another exhibit, they had what the surfer of the ‘60s wore. No super-baggy urban assault clothes here. Surfers went for straight-ahead stuff, not dash. The display had a Pendleton wool shirt, Jack Purcell low-top tennies, and a St. Christopher medal hanging from the neck and resting on a thick, white J.C. Penney Towncraft T-shirt. They even had a pair of huaraches.

What about the Wedge?

Later, later.

One old flyer advertised the 1928 Pacific Coast Surfboard Championships held at Corona del Mar, which included such participants as surfing legends Tom Blake and Duke Kahanamoku.

But when it comes to competitors, Fig said, Newport’s reigning champ is Richie Collins, currently rated No. 15 in the world. An entire section in the exhibit is on Richie and his father, Lance, who manufactures surfboards under the name of Wave Tools.

Fig? Fig? where did you go?

I was looking at a picture of the Wedge at 30 feet. (Ah, again with the Wedge.)

The shot of the Wedge captured a giant wave, 30-feet on the face. It was huge and made knee boards look like twigs. No wonder Fig was interested.

The Wedge is normally known as a bodysurfing spot, but it’s now used by a lot of bodyboarders, and every once in a while there’s a couple of psycho-surfers out there.

The exhibit, which was put together by Allen Trane from Corona del Mar and Anne and Bob Mignogna, the publisher of San Clemente-based Surfing magazine, will continue through Dec. 20. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. Go see it; it’s worthwhile.

The nautical museum is at 1714 W. Balboa Blvd., Newport Beach. Admission is free, but a donation is requested. For more information, call (714) 673-3377.