O.C. Beach-Goers Rate the Waves Really Highly

Tom Mays and Peter Pastre wolfed down their lunch at their insurance company desks so they could spend the rest of their midday break at the Wedge witnessing a rarity: waves of up to 30 feet.

Sunny Malloy and her 8-year-old niece, Kaela Jimenez, braved bumper-to-bumper traffic down Balboa Boulevard to do the same.

The four were among the thousands drawn from their jobs, houses and hotels to the piers and beaches of the Southland to simply stare at the phenomenon: some of the largest summer waves anyone has seen in years.

From Newport Beach to Manhattan Beach, continuing high surf from a storm several hundred miles off Tahiti resulted in the waves splashing as high as 30 feet up the pilings of sturdy municipal piers.

“When it pounds [our] pier, it feels like an earthquake,” said Dana Collier of Manhattan Beach. “It’s cool, it’s our own little Disneyland--at least when you know it’s not a real earthquake.”

Along the coast from San Diego to Ventura, waves continued to pound south-facing beaches, cascading as high as 6 feet at Zuma Beach and Marina del Rey, 8 feet at the San Clemente Pier and 10 feet in Newport Beach.

The surf was expected to begin diminishing today. But on Thursday, water conditions proved exhilarating for bodyboarders, hairy for lifeguards and supremely enjoyable for the vicarious multitudes on the shore.

By late afternoon, lifeguards at Newport had made two rescues, towing ashore weak and unprepared swimmers who got caught in the churning waters.

“Luckily, it wasn’t anything serious,” said lifeguard Eric Sherwin, 21. “Overall, the day has been exciting, though. We lived this day like the way we learned in training: working in the biggest surf with large numbers of people.”

“It’s amazing. It just looks like it can eat you up,” marveled Malloy, 23, as a set of waves seemed to swallow and then toss back the 20 or so bodysurfers in the churning waters near Newport on Thursday. “I give all those people out here much credit.”

Her niece, Kaela, added: “I’ve never seen waves this big before. It’s really cool.”

Mays and Pastre weren’t quite as impressed, saying they had seen bigger waves in past years. “But some of these are still pretty breathtaking,” said Mays, 42.

Michael Lorton has also seen more impressive surf. But he wasn’t complaining. “Waves this big are something you don’t see much in Southern California,” said the 25-year-old Aliso Viejo resident. “This is a big day, especially for surfers.”

Four-year-old Christine Zirneklis compared the walls of foam to the famed waterfalls of Yosemite National Park, where she and her family visited in June. The falls were “splashy and these [waves] are really, really splashy,” said the wavy-haired little girl, as she and her mother and aunt sat under a bright green beach umbrella. “This is really neat.”

Her aunt, Jean Lindsey, 54, of Huntington Beach, described the scene as “a spectacular show.”

“And it’s free,” she added, just as the hundreds of people around her oohed and aahed in unison at a gigantic sea swell. “The crowd is as much fun to watch as the waves.”

tioning Flo Collier of Kennett, Mo., who spent the day at Manhattan Beach, also marveled at the foam and the denizens of the surf. But she wasn’t about to jump in.

“I hate to say it,” she confided to her daughter-in-law, Dana. “But ever since I saw ‘Jaws,’ I wouldn’t go in that far.”