Surfing & body surfing big waves at the Wedge, Newport Beach, Hurricane Marie
Tropical storm Marie developed into a category 5 hurricane in August of 2014, with winds up to 160mph. As Hurricane Marie, it brought Southern California some pretty big surf, which is unusual for the summer months. The eastern Pacific area off of Baja has already seen four category 4 hurricanes this summer, which is the sort of thing that typically happens only during El Nino years.
These hurricane swells arrive in So Cal at steep SSW angles, bringing with them a very strong longshore current, out of the SSW. This energy is focused on beaches facing southwards, like the Wedge in Orange County. The Wedge is also next to a long jetty, that compresses the swell into a corner of the beach, which sort of magnifies and mutates the energy, into something that is both spectacular and dangerous.
This particular swell peaked early in the morning, and most of the bodysurfing photos were taken as the swell was dropping. The only long lens on hand was an old manual focus Tamron SP 60-300 Adaptall-2 zoom lens. It had noticeable vignetting even at f/8, and the resolution wasn’t a match for the 36mp sensor in the Sony a7R. These pics where mostly shot at f/8, iso800, 1/2000th of a second shutter speed.
Dan Euritt
