There is an infamous beach in the Balboa area of Newport called "The Wedge". Once or twice every summer the conditions are perfect and the drive a massive swell towards The Wedge. Waves get over 20 feet (6+ meters) and people from all over the area flock to the beach to surf, bodyboard, bodysurf, kneeboard, and just to watch the massive waves break very close to the shore. Standing on the shore in front of the wedge you can literally feel the ground shake as these giants break in front of you.
The Wedge is famous for it's shorebreak (when the waves break in very shallow water). Even when a 20 ft. swell is not hitting the wedge, the beach break still gets sizeable waves throughout most of the summer. Breaking in as little as 6 inches to a foot of water this tends to get people hurt. Growing up on the beaches of Newport you hear all sorts of stories about people breaking their necks, getting seriously injured, or even dying (as recent as 2009) in the shorebreak at the wedge. If you visit this beach, whether the waves are big or small, exercise extreme caution when entering the water. These waves build up off the jetty which provides shelter from wind and waves for the Newport Harbor outlet to the ocean. This causes the waves to jack up in size as they get smashed between the shallow floor and the jetty, and also to rapidly change direction away from the jetty causing powerful and unusual currents.
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