Dirty Old Wedge Page #2

buff, stud dudes, you know.

So, they didn't take crap from

anybody.

- You'd get the standard

warning, you know?

If you were an idiot and

you cut you off or something

and they landed on you,

you'd say, listen man,

don't do that again.

And if they did it again, well,

sometimes we'd follow them on

the beach.

- [Voiceover] The Wedge crew.

- [Brunette] The Wedge crew.

- [Blonde] Yeah.

- [Voiceover] We're in the Wedge

pit.

- [Both] Yeah.

- [Voiceover] Are they gonna

kick our butts for being here?

- Ya know and it was funny

cause they came down in shorts

at first and then all of sudden

man,

they'd just bust into

Speedos and we're just all,

whoa, you know?

- When I first starting riding,

it was Speedos under the

trunks, get down to the water,

drop the trunks, ride in your

Speedos.

And then, eventually we said,

oh.

You know what, we're

the best guys down here.

We were here all the time

so why don't we just

wear 'em on the beach?

Because we didn't care.

We didn't care what anybody

thought of us.

- You know, it was their trip

and they made fun of themselves.

They made it like funny to wear

Speedos.

- And the only time I

wouldn't wear Speeds,

Romanaosky and I did a lot of

Frisbee.

He'd say, Mel, there's no

way I'm throwing the Frisbee

with you wearing Speedos.

- But it was funny, I think

they kind of won us all over

and kind of established their

deal

because they were freely

charismatic, you know?

Like, Mel was super funny

and just was really good

with the jibber jabber and

keeping Romo

from getting pissed off at

him and making him laugh.

And he knew quickly, like,

Romo was the guy that

gets waves, you know.

- [Voiceover] Oh my God, that's

great.

Uh oh, Ron just ripping it.

Alright, he's stoked, that was

awesome.

(gentle, strumming music)

(clapping)

- [Voiceover] Despite those

Speedos, they were wave riders.

They brought a new energy to

Wedge

and that energy on the sand

transferred

right into the water.

They set the bar higher

than it had ever been.

- I think we just kept going and

going

and more people would kind of

come in

and if they had that same verve,

they had that verve, that love.

It was like, let's go.

You know, and you have that

same soul, that same heart,

that same love.

- The art of body surfing

and the soulfulness

of body surfing that the

Wedge crew was all about,

even though they love their fun,

they were purist body surfers,

you know.

And they loved that art form.

- There is something special

about being on that wave

with nothing but your body.

And, it's difficult.

It's not easy.

So, when you score a ride body

surfing,

it's the greatest feeling in the

world

because you're one with the

ocean.

- There's no better way to

ride a wave in body surfing.

There's just something special

about it

that you just can't beat it.

- Body surfing down at the

Wedge really started peaking

with notoriety and people

seeing body surfers

as more than just guys that,

oh, they don't know how to surf

or body board or do whatever.

It's like, no, no, body

surfing's like a full-on deal

in its own.

- I always say the wave got me

there

and the people kept me there

because here I get down there

and it's,

everybody body surfs.

This is it, this is where I

belong.

(gentle, pop music)

- [Voiceover] Fun with Mel's

crew,

it wasn't long before a new crop

of kids started showing up.

These young guys, they were so

good,

you know, showing just

incredible style.

- When we first showed up,

we were so afraid of the crew

and they were such a unique

group of individuals.

They had such

flair, style.

They wore Speedos with

all sorts of colors.

Did things on waves we couldn't

imagine.

And we were just in awe of them.

- I would go out there and

Romo would tell me to leave,

Jeff Stack would tell me to

leave.

You know, Terry Wave, even

Mel, get out of here (grunts).

That went on literally for

years.

- You had to prove yourself.

And to prove yourself meant

taking off

some ugly, ugly stuff.

- [Voiceover] Uh- oh.

Oh, wait a minute.

Who was that?

- And finally working yourself

up that little hierarchy

to get some better waves and

better waves.

And then eventually showing

everybody

that you can handle it and be

there.

- [Voiceover] Panama Rick.

Panama Rick in the barrel.

- They talked about us,

we talked about them

and it just took, it

took probably five years

before we were

semi-integrated into the crew.

- [Voiceover] Back to Phil.

Phil, anything else you wanna

say to the folks at home?

- I thought I had some good

waves today.

- [Voiceover] I saw you

ripping out there but--

- Mel try not to speak,

I thought I rode well.

- I think you finally

knew you were in the crew

when then gave you a nickname.

And my nickname had to be Panama

Rick

because my face was always red.

And Mel had a fish named Panama.

It was this red fish.

I got the name Panama cause

my face looked like his fish.

- Mel, where did Mel come from?

It's Kevin, Kevin Feldman.

I have no idea where Mel came

from.

- Terry Sack Wade.

Sack had to do with more of his

anatomy

then it does with his huge wave

riding.

- The sack or the bat

wing because his nut sack

was so big, he'd stretch it

out and do this at parties

when he was drunk, it was just

horrifying.

- We had a nickname for Tom.

He was this huge guy with red

hair

and we called him Sasquatch.

- It was actually Sasquatch

from my high school friends

and it was a Wedge crew

member that said I believe

that his friends call him

Cashbox.

- We would hear this, what

we thought was Cashbox

and we'd call guys with

big asses, box asses.

So, we thought that was perfect.

You know, big guy, big ass

(laughs).

- I got guys that come up to me,

they go,

hey, Cash, I had no idea you

had a real name Tom Kennedy.

I go, I do.

I'm Tom Kennedy, Cashbox is my

nickname.

But everybody in that

community had a very fun,

cool personality and

that's what really made

the Wedge crew what it was.

- The stuff we used to do as

a crew, it was all about fun.

I mean, my whole thing was

like, this is the most fun

anybody could ever have

was riding the Wedge.

Well I'm so tired

Why don't you

- Mel kind of became the

root of this group of guys

kind of coming together.

- Mel was the guy who you could

tell

was kind of like the

mayor down there, right?

You had Fred Simpson

who was the president,

you had Terry Wade who

was maybe an all-star.

Tom Kennedy was a comedian.

And you had Mel, the mayor.

- [Voiceover] Mel Toman, for

example, has a BA from USC

but he chooses to stock

grocery shelves at night

so the waves have him all day

long.

He even records a daily

wave report for others

like Tom Kennedy, who

runs an insurance agency

but still calls Mel two

or three times every day.

- He was the guy that would

bring all those (laughs).

He'd bring all those like blow

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes