The Wedge: California’s Mutant Wave

Bobby Okvist is perfectly at home in the belly of the beast at the Wedge. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

An unknown bodyboarder gets tossed in a backwash explosion. These guys take the hardest, most regular beatings of anyone out there. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Jamie O'Brien came all the way from Hawaii to find out what Wedge is all about. Here he tries to find a safe way to exit out. Hint: there is none. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Bobby Okvist and I link up for a number of shots here. This one of Bobby launching to mental heights over a mutant closeout is my finalist image from the 2013 Red Bull Illume contest. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Not too long ago Brad Ettinger found that elusive, perfect shack at Wedge. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

To me, this photo of Morgan Craig dropping a steep, sunlit, early morning peak tells a perfect story of the illusion that is surfing at Wedge. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

This photo shares a more realistic version of Wedge... Local big wave charger Spencer Pirdy warms up for Maverick's by taking beatings like this at home. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Except for maybe the light of a speed blur at sunset. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

It’s not advisable to go right at the Wedge. Just ask Damien Fahrenfort. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Steep, quick drop are the norm as the waves refract and double-up. Bobby Okvist's got it figured out (most of the time). Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

You've always got to be on the lookout for backwash at a shore breaking wave like the Wedge. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Not all waves barrel at the Wedge; many become a massive wall and chase you towards shore. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

A famiiar sight at Pipe: Jamie O grabbing rail. Looks good at Wedge too. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Heavy shorebreak makes for some violent explosions at the water's edge. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Watching tourists get drenched when a massive wall of whitewater zips up the beach and crests the steep bank is nearly as entertaining as watching the action in the water. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Bodyboarding big wave legend Josh Garner keeps an eye conditions and shows up occasionally to carve through a perfect, near-shore barrels. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

It’s pretty common to get hung-up in a heavy lip. Spencer Pirdy’s made an art of airdropping from these. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

You can get some amazing, unique angles and looks shooting water here. The ever-expanding army of GoPro's is testament to that. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Dropping at the Wedge is never a smooth ride. You can see the refracting wave's path in the surface texture as it moves up the face of this peak Morgan Craig is dropping. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Waves are thick and heavy. If an outright closeout doesn't squash you, a chandelier just might. Bobby O making the split second decision to clench and hold his line into the closeout instead of being guillotined going for the doggy-door. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Spencer Pirdy illustraiting the dead-zone, where you don’t have enough speed to outrun the closeout behind you, and the currents ripping out from the all-too-close shore stop you dead in your tracks. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Thanks to news vans posting up at dawn over the past couple years and reporting live to all the local morning, mid-day, and evening news shows, a big day at the Wedge has become a huge spectator event. Good luck finding parking. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

At 1/800th of a second the Wedge can open up perfectly like it has here for Kris Camacho, before shutting down just as quickly. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Why bail out the back when you can air out with style instead? For Nathan Fletcher, a smaller day like this in knee-high water is the perfect time to play. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

As much as the massive, peaking, heaving waves we get on the biggest swells, the colors and textures at sunset on a medium size swell keep me coming back to the Wedge time and time again. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

Things move fast at the Wedge. This wave peaked and broke before Spencer Pirdy could fully stand- and it's still this massive as he charges down the face. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

If you can just see a wave breaking above the steep bank from across the beach, you can bet it's close to a stand-up barrel. As heavy but breaking closer to shore and in shallower water, sometimes those can be more treacherous than the 25-footers. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

The bigger the wave here, the harder it is to get that classic, over-head barreling watershot; you're more focused on survival. Note that little black dot towards the bottom right of the wave: that's a bodyboarder. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg

The early morning light can paint these hollow, close-out barrels like nothing else. Photo: Benjamin Ginsberg