The Wedge
Newport Beach · near Newport Beach · Los Angeles / SoCal
Surfing
At a glance
- Skill level
- expert
- Best season
- Summer · South swells July–Sept produce the biggest shows
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Surfing detail
- Break types
- shore
- Swell
- South swell essential · Bigger the better for the spectacle · 4–20ft+ on the face
- Tide
- Higher tides often produce the best wedge effect
- Wind
- Conditions secondary — the jetty geometry determines the wave
- Crowd
- Bodysurfers and bodyboarders dominate the lineup. Stand-up surfing is expert-only and even experts get destroyed here. For most visitors: beach chairs, cold drinks, watch in awe.
- Board
- Bodyboard or nothing · Stand-up surfing for genuine experts only
- Wetsuit
- Boardshorts or spring suit in summer · 3/2mm in off-season
- Intl tip
- The Wedge is at the very tip of Balboa Peninsula. The Balboa Ferry ($2 per person) runs from the peninsula to Balboa Island, one of the most charming neighborhoods in Orange County, for a quick detour after watching the surf.
The guide
This isn't really a surf spot in the traditional sense. It's a phenomenon. Swells wrap around the Newport Harbor jetty, collide…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to The Wedge — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 33.5993, -117.8823