Dirty Old Wedge Page #5

boards and we'd kick on them

and kick on 'em and you'd get

the wave

and you'd start riding the

wave and then we'd fling 'em.

And we'd throw 'em, we

wouldn't ride the boogie board.

We called them diving board take

offs.

So, you'd just take off on

the boogie board to get speed

and then go down and ride

the wave and body surf.

But we didn't know that he

had photographers down there

trying to get photos for, to

sell the product at the time

and so, when we found out

there was photographers,

we never even used them.

You know, we just stopped.

But then Ramon one day,

we had a good sized swell.

He took off on a wave and he

did a diving board take off

but they got the picture of him

on the top of a really good

Wedge peak.

Well, that was on the

back of surfer magazine

and that was the beginning of

the end as far as that went.

- The problem was anybody could

ride them.

It was very easy to.

And Romo's quote of, you could

put a dead body on a boogie

and it would make the wave,

you know, that type of deal.

It allowed people that

really shouldn't be out there

to gain access to the wave.

- [Voiceover] The bodyboards

started showing up

around the mid 80's.

And, at the time it wasn't

so much of a threat.

There was only a handful of

guys that truly rode the place.

Ben Severson, JP Patterson, Mike

Stewart.

- I remember going there

and not really getting the

most welcome vibe, for sure.

It's kind of understandable

that they might not really

take a liking to me and

what I was doing down there.

But I think eventually, I

kind of gained some respect

and I slowly kind of worked my

way in

with a lot of those guys.

- But, as the photos started

hitting the magazines

and it progressed, it just

exploded.

- When it changed was when,

and it wasn't Mike or Pat,

it was the hoards of other folks

that just couldn't control

themselves.

They brought it there

and it turned into a money

making venue.

You'd see guys take a wave,

sprint out,

talk to the photographer, run

back.

They didn't care who they were

cutting off

and that was so diametrically

opposed

to what the Wedge was all about.

It was a dichotomy that didn't

work.

- When bodyboarding magazine

came out

and started profiling

the Wedge, of course,

and these guys, and suddenly

it was like the floodgates

were open and there'd be

more and more of them.

And, they were growing

exponentially like an amoeba

or something, just crazy.

- [Voiceover] Is that a boogie?

I ain't filming boogies.

Oh, damn it, that boogie again.

- [Voiceover] Oh Go, not a boog.

I just squeak 'em out of

the picture frame, Ron.

- Back in the

early days, body

surfers and the

knee riders,

because there

weren't any boogie

boards yet,

always got along.

- If you knew what you were

doing,

you could let 'em ride with ya

and you could knee ride

and they'd ride up behind

and you could still ride

the wave, both of you.

But the boogie board crowd

was definitely disrespectful

and it was just a whole

different crowd of people.

- What really was a big deal for

the crew

was that they weren't

accomplished water men

riding the boards most of the

time.

There was just a few that were

good.

The rest sucked.

- Something special was being

lost.

The heritage, a way of

living with the water

and body surfing does

that like no other sport.

And when people come into your

house

and knock on your door and say,

oh, by the way, we're

moving in and I'm bringing

my 500 closest friends,

things aren't gonna go well.

(people shouting)

- [Voiceover] Altercation.

(people chattering)

- There'd be fights in full-on,

like Romo would just like

seriously backhand guys out

there

because they would be

disrespectful.

Just like, bro, there's rules,

there's the pecking order

out here, there's respect.

And if you're cool with that

then we're cool with you

but if you cross that line

or you come in and hog waves,

you know, the boys would just be

on 'em.

And like Romo was like the king

guy of it

and he would send guys in.

I mean, he got into it with

them.

- Remember Romanosky was always,

he was always a tenacious guy.

I remember one time it was

pretty classic.

I can laugh at it now but

man, I wanted to just,

I came really close to just

attacking him.

And, I was all stoked, I had

this new board, you know?

I'm like, oh yeah, I just got a

new board.

And, I paddle out there and he's

all,

oh, right cool, let me have a

look.

And so, I show it to him

thinking he's gonna have a look

at it right, he shapes

his knee board and stuff,

he'll kind of get it.

So he grabs it, looks at

it, puts it on his head

and just folds it over his head.

- [Voiceover] But anyway,

the boogie invasion happened.

And the guys had said

that they had to do something

about it.

Mel Thoman, Terry Wade, and Tom

Kennedy

formed the Wedge

Preservation Society, or WPS.

- About three months ago, the

Wedge Preservation Society,

a group of body surfers

approached the marine

department.

- We went to the lifeguards and

said hey,

is there anything we can

to somehow, you know,

get this changed?

And, so we had a process

(mumbles)

you gotta go see the marine

department,

the lifeguard department,

just a whole bunch of things.

- And that would be that

the Wedge be regulated

with no flotation from

nine o'clock in the morning

to again, five o'clock in the

afternoon

but from the months of

May first to October 31st.

- This comes out in

the paper and suddenly,

it's like, buddies like Bill

Sharp

who was one of the knee

riders that was down there

all the time, he gets

wind, they're not happy.

- I found myself personally,

as a knee boarder,

just going wait, I'm being swept

out

with the rest of the

garbage and did what I could

to help counteract that.

- That was an exciting time for

us, getting together as one.

Saying, we need to do something

about this

or, literally, body surfings

gonna go away for one

and two, people are gonna get

hurt.

- We gained support from

other organizations.

We took our argument to the city

council.

- Hi, how ya doing?

I'm Terry Wade and I'm

one of the co-founders

of the Wedge Preservation

Society.

Body surfers are absolutely

not the minority at the Wedge.

Minority in the world

of surfing, absolutely.

But at the Wedge, the body

surfers,

it's probably the last

stronghold of body surfing

and in fact, historically is

the only beach in the world

that made a name for itself

as a body surfing beach.

It is undoubtedly the

best wave in the world

for body surfing.

And that's why we're here.

- We all dressed up, suits,

ties.

- My name is Philip Castillo and

I'm also

pro-Wedge Preservation Society.

- It's a safety issue.

You know, more and more boards.

It's more and more boards.

- Mayhem in the wave,

more than one person.

- The boogie guys and the

boarders,

they all came dressed in the

beach casual

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